---
id: release-notes
title: "Release notes"
---

<!-- TOC -->

## Version 1.9

- [Playwright Inspector](./inspector.md) is a **new GUI tool** to author and debug your tests.
  - **Line-by-line debugging** of your Playwright scripts, with play, pause and step-through.
  - Author new scripts by **recording user actions**.
  - **Generate element selectors** for your script by hovering over elements.
  - Set the `PWDEBUG=1` environment variable to launch the Inspector

- **Pause script execution** with [`method: Page.pause`]. in headed mode. Pausing the page launches [Playwright Inspector](./inspector.md) for debugging.

- **New has-text pseudo-class** for CSS selectors. `:has-text("example")` matches any element containing `"example"` somewhere inside, possibly in a child or a descendant element. See [more examples](./selectors.md#text-selector).

- **Page dialogs are now auto-dismissed** during execution, unless a listener for `dialog` event is configured. [Learn more](./dialogs.md) about this.

- [Playwright for Python](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-python) is **now stable** with an idiomatic snake case API and pre-built [Docker image](./docker.md) to run tests in CI/CD.

#### Browser Versions

- Chromium 90.0.4421.0
- Mozilla Firefox 86.0b10
- WebKit 14.1

#### New APIs
- [`method: Page.pause`].


## Version 1.8

- [Selecting elements based on layout](./selectors.md#selecting-elements-based-on-layout) with `:left-of()`, `:right-of()`, `:above()` and `:below()`.
- Playwright now includes [command line interface](./cli.md), former playwright-cli.
  ```sh js
  $ npx playwright --help
  ```
  ```sh python
  $ playwright --help
  ```
- [`method: Page.selectOption`] now waits for the options to be present.
- New methods to [assert element state](./actionability#assertions) like [`method: Page.isEditable`].

#### New APIs

- [`method: ElementHandle.isChecked`].
- [`method: ElementHandle.isDisabled`].
- [`method: ElementHandle.isEditable`].
- [`method: ElementHandle.isEnabled`].
- [`method: ElementHandle.isHidden`].
- [`method: ElementHandle.isVisible`].
- [`method: Page.isChecked`].
- [`method: Page.isDisabled`].
- [`method: Page.isEditable`].
- [`method: Page.isEnabled`].
- [`method: Page.isHidden`].
- [`method: Page.isVisible`].
- New option `'editable'` in [`method: ElementHandle.waitForElementState`].

#### Browser Versions

- Chromium 90.0.4392.0
- Mozilla Firefox 85.0b5
- WebKit 14.1

## Version 1.7

- **New Java SDK**: [Playwright for Java](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-java) is now on par with [JavaScript](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright), [Python](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-python) and [C# bindings](https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-sharp).
- **Browser storage API**: New convenience APIs to save and load browser storage state (cookies, local storage) to simplify automation scenarios with authentication.
- **New CSS selectors**: We heard your feedback for more flexible selectors and have revamped the selectors implementation. Playwright 1.7 introduces [new CSS extensions](./selectors.md) and there's more coming soon.
- **New website**: The docs website at [playwright.dev](https://playwright.dev/) has been updated and is now built with [Docusaurus](https://v2.docusaurus.io/).
- **Support for Apple Silicon**: Playwright browser binaries for WebKit and Chromium are now built for Apple Silicon.

#### New APIs

- [`method: BrowserContext.storageState`] to get current state for later reuse.
- `storageState` option in [`method: Browser.newContext`] and [`method: Browser.newPage`] to setup browser context state.

#### Browser Versions

- Chromium 89.0.4344.0
- Mozilla Firefox 84.0b9
- WebKit 14.1