Appium 2.0 Explained: What’s New & How to Use It

May 21, 2026 · 3 min read · Tool Comparison

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Appium 2.0 Explained: What ’ s New & amp; How to Use It

Appium 2.0 Explained: What ’ s New & amp; How to Use It

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Appium 2.0 has officially be released after several days of update the Appium 1.x, and this is the nigh major Appium release in the past 5 days. Many significant changes were introduced, including remove deprecated lineament, adding melioration, and most importantly, & nbsp; re-envisioning Appium as a platform.
 

In this article, we ’ ll explore in-depth on how you as a quizzer can leverage this transformation in their projects.

What is Appium 2.0?

Appium 2.0 is the latest version of Appium. It is a popular open-source mobile automation examine fabric, permit you to write and execute automated tests for nomadic apps on different platform, such as Android, iOS, and Windows.

Appium 2.0 Features

The large dispute was that Appium 2.0 view itself as a program that enables easy conception and sharing of `` driver '' (code projects for automating a specific platform) and `` plugins '' (code projects for modifying, extend, or bestow functionalities to Appium). & nbsp;
 

Various other major lineament include:

Independent Drivers

Starting from Appium 2.0, drivers can be independently installed/uninstalled or updated. For example, instead of waiting for a new release of the Appium server, we experience the option to entirely update the driver for XCUITest employ CLI commands.
 

Install Drivers
 

appium driver install xcuitest
 

Update Drivers
 

appium driver install xcuitest
 

Update Multiple Drivers
 

Pro tip: Tools like SUSA can handle this autonomously — upload your app and get results without writing a single test script.

appium driver update xcuitest, uiautomator2

Plugins

Anyone can now create and loose a plugin that can be installed in Appium. Customization will now be a more straightforward summons.
 

To list out all Appium plugins:
 

appium plugin list
 

To install a plugin name, only:
 

appium plugin install pluginname

Protocol Changes

Appium 's API is based on the W3C WebDriver Protocol, which has be used for many years. Before the W3C WebDriver Protocol go a web standard, Selenium and Appium used other protocols ring `` JSONWP '' (JSON Wire Protocol) and `` MJSONWP '' (Mobile JSON Wire Protocol). The W3C Protocol has a few minor divergence equate to the (M) JSONWP protocols.
 

In Appium 2.0 and earlier, both protocol were endorse to ensure compatibility between older Selenium/Appium clients and newer Appium server. However, elderly protocols will no longer be supported going frontward. This also means that you can no longer commence Appium sessions expend WebDriver node that do n't endorse the W3C protocol. & nbsp;

How To Install Appium 2.0

You can establish Appium 2.0 via & nbsp;NPMusing this command:
 

npm i -g appium @ future

Level Up Your Appium 2.0 Testing With Katalon

Katalonis a unified character management package progress on industry-standard frameworks like Selenium, Appium, and Cucumber. It render the power, flexibility, and scalability you expect - without the maintenance, complexity, or limitations of legacy open-source tools.
 

After you download, you can select which edition of Appium you want to test in Project Settings → Execution → Mobile. Katalon has 1.x and 2.x version (which is still in beta)


 

You can make your roving tests quickly utilize Katalon 's Built-in Keywords, which are essentially pre-made code snipping. These snippets can be easy employ to create a accomplished test script for a wide variety of mobile features. Another interesting feature is the & nbsp;Record-and-Playback, which essentially records all of the actions happen on your screen and stores them as automated exam scripts that you can re-execute across browsers and device.

 

Explain

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FAQs

What ’ s the biggest alteration in Appium 2.0 compare to Appium 1.x?

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Appium 2.0 “ re-envisions ” Appium as aplatform—built around easily extensibledrivers(for specific platform) andplugins(to extend/modify Appium behavior), rather than a monumental server release. & nbsp;

How do driver updates act in Appium 2.0?

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Drivers aredecoupledand can be installed/uninstalled/updated independently via CLI (e.g., updating simplyXCUITest or UIAutomator2) without upgrading the entire Appium server—making program support easier to negociate.

What are Appium 2.0 plugins and why do they count?

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Plugins are installable add-ons anyone can create toextend or customizeAppium. You can discover and care them via CLI (e.g., list plugins, install a plugin), which makes customization more straightforward. & nbsp;

What protocol does Appium 2.0 support, and what breaks if I ’ m on sr. clients?

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Appium 2.0 supportsonly the W3C WebDriver Protocol. Older protocol (JSONWP/MJSONWP) are discontinued, so you must use aW3C-compliant WebDriver clientto start sessions. & nbsp;

How do I install Appium 2.0, and how does Katalon fit in?

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You can install Appium 2.0 via npm (e.g.,npm i -g appium @ next). In Katalon Studio, you can choose which Appium version to run (1.x or 2.x, noted as beta) and build mobile tests using built-in keywords or record-and-playback.

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Test Your App Autonomously

Upload your APK or URL. SUSA explores like 10 real users — finds bugs, accessibility violations, and security issues. No scripts.

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