Espressif has recently announced the release of ESP-IDF v5.0, which is a major update for ESP-IDF v4.x. Release v5.0 is mostly compatible with apps written for ESP-IDF v4.x, but there are some breaking changes and removal of deprecated functionality, which will require some code changes when updating projects. Release v5.0 is the latest stable release at the time of writing.

Among the new features brought about by the latest ESP-IDF release are support for the ESP32-C2 and ESP32-H2 systems-on-chips, extended support for other ESP32 models including the ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3, and ESP32-S2, and security functionality including pre-encrypted firmware distribution during over-the-air (OTA) updates, a more secure Wi-Fi provisioning scheme, and additional Wi-Fi features including 802.11r support for fast station transition, WPS registrar support in softAP mode, and WPA3 SAE H2E support in station mode.

Other changes in the new release include a range of bug-fixes, from issues with the electronic fuses on ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S3 parts to problems with power-on reset when using a real-time clock, a reduction in power consumption in certain use cases, and a fix for certain power parameters in sleep mode on ESP32-S3.

However, the new release also brings with it a list of breaking changes which require careful consideration, when attempting to migrate projects from older releases to ESP-IDF 5.0. These include changes to the application programming interface (API) for Bluetooth operation, changes in the build system, networking changes including a move away from OpenSSL to mbedTLS or esp-tls for encryption, the deprecation of the old analog-to-digital (ADC) driver, and the removal of Python 3.6 support.

The latest release is available on the Espressif GitHub repository now under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. Additional information is available on the Espressif documentation site.

ESP-IDF v5.1, currently in development, will include initial support for the ESP32-C6 SoC. Espressif’s VP of Software Platforms, Ivan Grokhotkov, has just released a comprehensive list of the the ESP32-C6 features that will be supported in ESP-IDF v5.1. The list can be found here.