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Announce planned breaking changes for Protocol Buffers v34 (2026 Q1).
This CL adds a news article for September 19, 2025, detailing anticipated breaking changes in the v34 release, expected in 2026 Q1. The changes cover C++, Python, PHP, and Objective-C, including API removals, stricter parsing, and version bumps. It also notes other changes in Bazel and languages not receiving a major version bump. PiperOrigin-RevId: 811039196
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‎content/news/2025-09-19.md‎

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title = "Changes Announced on September 19, 2025"
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linkTitle = "September 19, 2025"
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toc_hide = "true"
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description = "Changes announced for Protocol Buffers on September 19, 2025."
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type = "docs"
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The following sections cover planned breaking changes in the v34 release,
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expected in 2026 Q1. These describe changes as we anticipate them being
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implemented, but due to the flexible nature of software some of these changes
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may not land or may vary from how they are described in this topic.
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## Changes in C++ {#cpp}
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C++ will bump its major version to 7 with the 7.34.0 release. 6.33 will be the
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final minor version release on 6.x
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### Removal of Future Macros {#cpp-remove-macros}
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The following macros, introduced for staged roll-out of breaking changes, will
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be removed and their behavior will become the default:
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* `PROTOBUF_FUTURE_RENAME_ADD_UNUSED_IMPORT`
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* `PROTOBUF_FUTURE_REMOVE_ADD_IGNORE_CRITERIA`
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* `PROTOBUF_FUTURE_STRING_VIEW_DESCRIPTOR_DATABASE`
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* `PROTOBUF_FUTURE_NO_RECURSIVE_MESSAGE_COPY`
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### New RepeatedPtrField Layout {#cpp-repeatedptrfield-layout}
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`RepeatedPtrField` will transition to a new internal element layout where
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elements are stored in contiguous chunks of preallocated memory, similar to
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`std::deque`. This results in some changes to copy/move semantics of some APIs,
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and some `UnsafeArena` APIs may become functional equivalents of their
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arena-safe counterparts and be deprecated.
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### MSB Hardening Check on RepeatedField::Get and RepeatedPtrField::Get {#cpp-repeatedfield-get-hardening}
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Protobufs will be hardened against OOB errors by adding comprehensive bounds
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checking to repeated field accesses.
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### Remove Arena Pointers from Repeated Fields {#cpp-remove-arena-pointers}
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The `RepeatedPtrField(Arena*)` constructor will be deleted.
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### Remove Deprecated APIs {#cpp-remove-apis}
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This release will remove the following public runtime APIs, which have been
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marked deprecated for at least one minor or major release and that are obsolete
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or replaced.
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#### AddUnusedImportTrackFile() and ClearUnusedImportTrackFiles()
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**API:** `AddUnusedImportTrackFile()`, `ClearUnusedImportTrackFiles()`
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**Replacement:** `AddDirectInputFile()` and `ClearDirectInputFiles()`
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#### AddIgnoreCriteria from message differencer
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`PROTOBUF_FUTURE_REMOVE_ADD_IGNORE_CRITERIA` was added for the breaking change.
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This release will remove the macro.
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**API:** `AddIgnoreCriteria()`
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**Replacement:** Wrap the raw pointer in a `unique_ptr`.
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#### FieldDescriptor::has_optional_keyword()
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**API:** `FieldDescriptor::has_optional_keyword()`
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**Replacement:** `has_presence()`
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#### FieldDescriptor::label()
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**API:** `FieldDescriptor::label()`
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**Replacement:** `is_repeated()` or `is_required()`
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#### FieldDescriptor::is_optional()
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**API:** `FieldDescriptor::is_optional()`
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**Replacement:** `!is_required() && !is_repeated()`
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#### UseDeprecatedLegacyJsonFieldConflicts()
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**API:** `UseDeprecatedLegacyJsonFieldConflicts()`
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**Replacement:** No replacement.
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### Stricter Name Length Limits {#cpp-name-limits}
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The protobuf compiler will enforce stricter limits on the length of symbol
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names, such as field names, to prevent potential issues. If the length of any
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field name is > 2^16, it will generate an error.
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### Hide Private Generator Headers in CMake {#cpp-cmake-headers}
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The protoc generator headers will no longer be installed by CMake. This should
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not affect most users.
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### [[nodiscard]] on Logically Constant Operations {#cpp-nodiscard}
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`[[nodiscard]]` will be added to several logically constant protobuf APIs where
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failure to consume the returned value indicates a probable bug. This follows
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patterns used commonly in the C++ standard library.
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## Changes in Python {#python}
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Python will bump its major version to 7 with the 7.34.0 release. 6.33 will be
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the final minor version release on 6.x
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There is no change in the gencode and we will relax the poison pills. No
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warnings or errors will be raised for old generated files for 7.34.x.
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### Raise TypeError on Incorrect Type Conversion to Timestamp/Duration {#python-type-error-timestamp-duration}
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This release will raise a `TypeError` instead of an `AttributeError` when
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converting an incorrect type to a `Timestamp` or `Duration`.
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### Reject bool to enum and int field {#python-reject-bool-enum-int}
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This release will reject setting enum or int fields with boolean values. The API
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will raise an error instead of implicitly converting them.
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### Remove float_precision from json_format {#python-remove-float-precision}
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This release will remove the deprecated `float_precision` option from the
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`json_format` serializer. This option does not exist in other ProtoJSON
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serializers and has confusing semantics.
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### Remove float_format/double_format from text_format {#python-remove-text-format-options}
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This release will remove the deprecated `float_format` and `double_format`
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options from `text_format`. These options are not available in other proto text
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format serializers.
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### Remove Deprecated APIs {#python-remove-apis}
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This release will remove the following public runtime APIs.
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#### FieldDescriptor.label
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**API:** `FieldDescriptor.label`
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**Replacement:** Use `is_repeated()` or `is_required()`.
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## Changes in PHP {#php}
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PHP will bump its major version to 5 with the 5.34.0 release. 4.33 will be the
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final minor version release on 4.x
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### Remove Deprecated APIs {#php-remove-apis}
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This release will remove the following public runtime APIs.
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#### FieldDescriptor getLabel
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**API:** `FieldDescriptor getLabel`
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**Replacement:** `isRepeated()` or `isRequired()`
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#### Google\Protobuf\Field_Kind
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**API:** `Google\Protobuf\Field_Kind`
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**Replacement:** `Google\Protobuf\Field\Kind`
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#### Google\Protobuf\Field_Cardinality
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**API:** `Google\Protobuf\Field_Cardinality`
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**Replacement:** `Google\Protobuf\Field\Cardinality`
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#### Google\Protobuf\Internal\RepeatedField
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**API:** `Google\Protobuf\Internal\RepeatedField`
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**Replacement:** `Google\Protobuf\RepeatedField`
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### JSON Parsing Strictness {#php-json-parsing}
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The JSON parser will become stricter and reject several cases that were
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previously accepted. This includes out-of-bound values, non-integer numeric
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values for integer fields, duplicate oneof fields, and non-string values for
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string fields. The JSON serializer will also reject `Infinity` and `NaN` for
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number values.
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### Fix Silent Ignoring of Default Values {#php-fix-default-values}
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The PHP runtime will be fixed to honor default values on scalar fields in proto2
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and editions, instead of silently ignoring them.
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### Type Checking Alignment {#php-type-checking}
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Type checking for pure-PHP and upb-PHP implementations will be aligned. Notably,
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pure-PHP will reject `null` for string fields, matching the behavior of upb-PHP.
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## Changes in Objective-C {#objc}
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Objective-C will bump its major version to 5 with the 5.34.0 release. 4.33 will
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be the final minor version release on 4.x
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The nullability annotations for some `GPB*Dictionary` APIs will be corrected to
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mark when APIs could return `nil`. This will result in Swift code getting a
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Swift `Optional<T>` and thus becoming a breaking API change. For Objective-C
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callers, the annotation correction is less likely to have any impact on the
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source code.
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### Remove Deprecated APIs {#objc-remove-apis}
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This release will remove the following public runtime APIs.
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#### -[GPBFieldDescriptor optional]
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**API:** `-[GPBFieldDescriptor optional]`
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**Replacement:** Use `!required && fieldType == GPBFieldTypeSingle` instead.
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## Other Changes {#other-changes}
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The following are additional breaking changes.
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### Bazel: Remove deprecated ProtoInfo.transitive_imports {#bazel-transitive-imports}
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The deprecated `transitive_imports` field in `ProtoInfo` will be removed. Users
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should migrate to `transitive_sources`.
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### Remove protobuf_allow_msvc flag and continue support Bazel+MSVC {#remove-protobuf_allow_msvc}
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Due to Bazel's recent improvements on Windows, we now plan to continue to
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support Bazel+MSVC. The `--define=protobuf_allow_msvc` flag will be removed.
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### Languages Without a Major Version Bump
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Java, Ruby, C#, Rust, and JRuby will not have a major version bump in this
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release.

‎content/news/_index.md‎

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The following news topics provide information in the reverse order in which it
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was released.
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* [September 19, 2025](/news/2025-09-19) - Breaking
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changes in the upcoming 34.x release
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* [July 16, 2025](/news/2025-07-16) - Resuming support
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for Bazel with MSVC
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* [July 14, 2025](/news/2025-07-14) - Deprecating

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