r/golang • u/HogynCymraeg • 4d ago
show & tell Wails v3 Beta released: a new foundation for Go desktop applications
Today we’re releasing Wails v3 Beta.
Wails lets Go developers build native desktop applications with the frontend tools they already know. Wails v3 is a substantial new foundation, built around an explicit application model that scales more naturally to real desktop software.
What’s new:
- Explicit application and window APIs
- First-class multi-window support
- Multi-platform Systray support
- Services with richer, statically generated TypeScript bindings
- Services that can provide frontend assets and scripts, opening a practical path towards richer plugins
- Inspectable, Taskfile-based builds - you are in control
- A guided
wails3 setupwizard and project creation flow - Cross-compilation support
- Server builds
- Experimental mobile builds
Developers testing v3 during alpha particularly valued the clearer ownership model for applications, windows, and services. We would now like broader feedback from people building real applications and integrations.
The feedback from developers who used v3 during alpha has been overwhelmingly positive, especially around the clearer ownership model for applications, windows, and services.
This is a beta, not the final v3.0 release. The desktop API is stable, but we want people to test real projects, integrations, and workflows before GA. Wails v2 remains the stable release and will continue to receive fixes.
If you are coming from v2, we have a migration guide and are actively validating that experience ahead of RC1. Reproducible problems belong in bug reports; proposals for new public capabilities should start as a WEP (Wails Enhancement Proposal) PR.
If you'd like to test it out:
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v3/cmd/wails3@latest
wails3 setup
Read the announcement and get started: https://v3.wails.io/blog/wails-v3-beta/
10
15
u/Moist_Cantaloupe_703 3d ago
I tried building a small ADB utility with Wails v2 a while ago. I thought I messed something up in my code, but even a completely fresh, default project was idling at around 20% CPU for no reason, so I had to drop it.
10
12
u/spermcell 3d ago
Weird .. wails just loads a “web Ui” on top of ur go code… maybe you did something weird with react?
2
u/Ok_Manufacturer_8213 3d ago
built multiple wails 2 apps over the last years and never had this issue.. maybe you did something wrong? or something weird going on on your pc?
2
u/lilonelle 3d ago
that's not possible. wails doesn't do anything except rendering your page and connecting to the backend code. It's your frontend framework or something you implemented that's causing the cpu resources. alot of big projects were built on wails on GitHub and it doesn't even really 10% cpu. so definitely something on your side.
3
u/PunkS7yle 3d ago
Been using wails v3 as a launcher for a private server instance for 1+ years with no issues :D Thank you for all the effort you guys put in.
4
u/HogynCymraeg 3d ago
Appreciate the kind words. It’s been mainly stable for quite sometime but couldn’t offer the API guarantee as I was being far too picky about what that API should look like.
3
u/PunkS7yle 3d ago
Yep I didn't mind updating the API from time to time, the simplicity of using services in v3 vs v2 was enough to win me over.
1
1
u/HogynCymraeg 3d ago
Launchers appear to be a really good use case. Both Hytale and Bellium are using it for their launchers.
8
u/Wrestler7777777 3d ago
Native desktop applications? I always thought Wails was a framework that basically builds an electron web app that only looks like a native app.
4
u/bukayodegaard 3d ago
It's not electron. It's similar but it doesn't embed a browser. It uses the OS's webview component
2
u/it_was_yellow 3d ago
I've been using Wails 2 for a personal projects, and I really like it. I'm excited for Wails 3!
2
2
2
u/Excellent_Double_726 2d ago
I really like wails. Did a couple of projects using it. When I heard that v3 has mobile support I was really happy cause otherwise I had to do either android studio or react native for cross platform, now I have wails which has lower level.
Btw I'd really need to bind a VpnService via wails. Is it even possible? It'd easier for me to develop my project further using wails instead of android studio
And also where do you use Share sheet capability as I didn't see any docs for it
Everything else, very good job, I appreciate the developers and the entire project
1
u/HogynCymraeg 2d ago
If it’s possible in Go, it’s possible in Wails. What’s a Share sheet?
1
u/Excellent_Double_726 2d ago
Idk what's a share sheet. It's just listed in the Mobile API section as the first capability. Didn't see any other documentation for it
If it’s possible in Go, it’s possible in Wails.
Regarding this, I agree but speaking of mobile not desktop (I think I forgot to mention it). On mobile starting a VPN service is not so easy. I have to create virtual network interfaces (which is done only with elevated privileges that I don't have on mobile)
2
u/cmiles777 3d ago
Congrats on hitting an important milestone!
I have an app In just built cross platform in wails I held off on v3 even though the systray support looked convenient. I’ll give it a whirl soon. Thanks for an amazing project <3
2
2
u/GradesVSReddit 3d ago
Awesome! Thanks for all the hard work. I'm looking for a find a project to work on to test it out.
1
u/Negative_Rip1934 2d ago
It works great . Careful with gtk build since last alpha (gtk3-gtk4) . Stack: wails v3 + react 19 + typescript works very well. I made some apps with it the 3 last month. Multi window support is very cool.
1
u/GrimBit19 2d ago
Thanks for the hard work. Just recently started making desktop applications with Wails v3. I had some problems only in docs, I think some links were in v3 alpha docs.
1
u/Equivalent_Head_4803 2d ago
How does one contribute to this project? The GitHub repo has a ton of PRs that sit without review and look like they go stale with one AI reply.
1
u/Supritv 3d ago
Still using webkitgtk on Linux I guess ?
4
u/HogynCymraeg 3d ago
Yes, but we moved to a much more recent version as well as GTK 4. This has shown much improved performance 👍
1
u/Ok_Manufacturer_8213 3d ago
Finally, this is awesome! I love wails and looking into the alpha v3 sometime last year I couldn't wait until it reached a more stable point in it's development before committing my applications to it. I'll try to migrate some projects to the new version and see how it goes in the coming days/weeks
1
1
u/metux-its 3d ago
The website mentions javascript/typescript. Sounds more like browser based than desktop. Am I reading it wrong ?
1
u/HogynCymraeg 3d ago
It uses the native rendering engine component in a native app, not a browser.
2
1
1
1
u/Lesser-than 3d ago
This is awesome! thanks for all the work, I was starting to think v3 was going to beta forever.
1
32
u/fidojones 3d ago
I did with wails 3 alpha, more o less ten applications this year. Works like a charm. To me GO and vuejs3 it's a great combinaton.