Impact Score: 5/10
Playwright v1.28.0 — Release Notes & Engineering Impact
Source available — automated, not human-reviewed
Component: playwright · Channel: stable. Automated analysis, not a compatibility certification. How this works.
Analysis updated: 2026-11-01.
⚡ Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Playwright v1.28.0. Source highlight: **Record at Cursor in VSCode.** You can run the test, position the cursor at the end of the test and continue generating the test.
Who Does This Impact? (Role-Based Analysis)
💻 Software Engineers & Devs
Check the source notes against the package and APIs you use before upgrading.
📊 Product & Engineering Leads
Use the documented changes to assess relevance to your product; release frequency alone is not a quality measure.
⚙️ DevOps & Security
Verify the target version, runtime requirements and rollback procedure in the official documentation.
📄 View Raw Release Notes (Original Developer Log)
## Playwright Tools
* **Record at Cursor in VSCode.** You can run the test, position the cursor at the end of the test and continue generating the test.
<img alt="New VSCode Extension" width=600 src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/746130/202005839-aba2eeba-217b-424d-8496-8b4f5fa72f41.png">
* **Live Locators in VSCode.** You can hover and edit locators in VSCode to get them highlighted in the opened browser.
* **Live Locators in CodeGen.** Generate a locator for any element on the page using "Explore" tool.
<img alt="Locator Explorer" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/746130/201796876-01567a0b-ca61-4a9d-b12b-04786c471671.png" width=600>
* **Codegen and Trace Viewer Dark Theme.** Automatically picked up from operating system settings.
<img alt="Dark Theme" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/746130/201797969-603f74df-d7cf-4c56-befd-798dbd269796.png" width=600>
### Test Runner
* Configure retries and test timeout for a file or a test with [`test.describe.configure([options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-test#test-describe-configure).
```js
// Each test in the file will be retried twice and have a timeout of 20 seconds.
test.describe.configure({ retries: 2, timeout: 20_000 });
test('runs first', async ({ page }) => {});
test('runs second', async ({ page }) => {});
```
* Use [`testProject.snapshotPathTemplate`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-testproject#test-project-snapshot-path-template) and [`testConfig.snapshotPathTemplate`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-testconfig#test-config-snapshot-path-template) to configure a template controlling location of snapshots generated by [`expect(page).toHaveScreenshot(name[, options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/test-assertions#page-assertions-to-have-screenshot-1) and [`expect(screenshot).toMatchSnapshot(name[, options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/test-assertions#screenshot-assertions-to-match-snapshot-1).
```js
// playwright.config.ts
import type { PlaywrightTestConfig } from '@playwright/test';
const config: PlaywrightTestConfig = {
testDir: './tests',
snapshotPathTemplate: '{testDir}/__screenshots__/{testFilePath}/{arg}{ext}',
};
export default config;
```
### New APIs
- [`locator.blur([options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locator#locator-blur)
- [`locator.clear([options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-locator#locator-clear)
- [`android.launchServer([options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-android#android-launch-server) and [`android.connect(wsEndpoint[, options])`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-android#android-connect)
- [`androidDevice.on('close')`](https://playwright.dev/docs/api/class-androiddevice#android-device-event-close)
### Browser Versions
* Chromium 108.0.5359.29
* Mozilla Firefox 106.0
* WebKit 16.4
This version was also tested against the following stable channels:
* Google Chrome 107
* Microsoft Edge 107