GNOME 47 “Denver” proved to be a decent update to the GNOME desktop, delivering a healthy dose of new features, UI improvements, and application enhancements.

As those of you using Ubuntu 24.10 will no doubt appreciate it.

But as one version comes out, work on the next one begins.

GNOME 48: release schedule

GNOME 48′Bengaluru‘ (named after the host city of the GNOME Asia Summit taking place in December) is scheduled for release on March 19, 2025.

Dates of important development milestones along the way to ensure there is sufficient opportunity to implement and test key changes, the necessary “freeze” to solidify the desired set of changes, and then further testing to refine and perfect them:

• GNOME 48 (Alpha) – January 4, 2025
• GNOME 48 (beta) – February 1, 2025
• Freeze of APIs, ABI, features and UI – February 1, 2025
• GNOME 48 (release candidate) – March 1, 2025

The final stable version of GNOME 48 arrives on March 19, 2025.

Of these dates, the beta is the most notable, as the feature freeze in the Ubuntu 25.04 release schedule is approaching and this is about the time when anyone using the daily Ubuntu 25.04 builds should waiting for GNOME 48 components to start showing up – always exciting.

GNOME 48: what to expect?

It’s too early to know what’s planned for GNOME 48 because, well, it’s still being planned!

But we may see some of the changes originally planned for GNOME 47 that, for various reasons, ended up being delayed or postponed to allow for more in-depth discussions, like a change to the default font.

GNOME 48 gives Canonical’s Daniel van Vugt another chance to land his performance-enhancing tool triple buffer support In Whisper upstream. Meanwhile, notification grouping and expanded accent color coverage will likely be available in GNOME Shell next year.

A myriad of changes to the many GNOME Core applications is a certainty, but what exactly? Again, it’s too early as you read this – but there has been some debate about adding a tab layout functionality like that of GNOME Web has Nautilus.

And Settings may bring a new “Wellbeing” panel with break reminders and other well-intentioned options, a more comprehensive networking panel with mobile network configuration and VPN improvements.

Magnifying glass The Image Viewer improves its zoom controls and behavior – it’s a done deal – but RAW support and basic image editing (like cropping) have also been suggested – compelling additions that could help persuade Ubuntu to adopt it for Brave puffin!

Elsewhere, Show timethe modern GNOME media player, could emerge from Incubator take over Totem (but still a solid lining in the main role so if you haven’t checked it yet, it’s on Flathub).

Of course, all of the above features are TBD, TBD, and DBM (don’t blame me). No firm commitments, just some notions from the current state of development, recent and proposed mergers and ongoing discussions.

GNOME 48 will begin to take a more assured shape in the coming months, so stay tuned for updates on changes that are likely to make an appreciable impression in Ubuntu 25.04, arriving next year.

What are your hopes for GNOME 48? Is there a feature or improvement you would like to see? A small tweak that would make a big difference to your workflow? Share it in the comments!