# GNOME Shell: what changed from 49 to 50

- Product: GNOME Shell (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell)
- Vendor: GNOME
- Range: changelog entries numbered after 49.9 up to and including 50.4, stable releases only
- Entries below: 4 releases (newest first)
- Resolved: 49 is 49.9 and 50 is 50.4, the newest stable release of each major we track
- Not shown: 3 releases whose versions could not be placed against this range
- Carrying security changes: 0 · CVEs mentioned: 0 · Mentioning breaking changes: 0 · Removing or deprecating something: 0
- Page: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/compare/49...50

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

## What changed (27 changes, grouped by kind)

### Added

#### 50.2 (2026-05-28)

- Add rate control to VA-API H.264 screencast pipelines

#### 50.1 (2026-04-14)

- Enable network agent on lock screen
- Add basic zoom support to captive portal

### Changed

#### 50.3 (2026-06-29)

- Announce search result description to screen readers
- Improve animation when expanding app grid label

#### 50.2 (2026-05-28)

- Open session/a11y menu on login screen on either button

#### 50.1 (2026-04-14)

- Use triangular noise shape for dithering lightbox vignette
- Fit on-screen keyboard better on very small screens

### Fixed

#### 50.4 (2026-08-04)

- Fix some menu animations
- Fix glitch when switching to minimized window on another workspace
- Fix miscaled magnified cursor on HiDPI
- Fix sound glitch when pushing redundant volume changes
- Fix removing arbitrary provider when removing unregistered search provider
- Misc. bug fixes and cleanups (also in 50.3)

#### 50.3 (2026-06-29)

- Prevent workspaces from being removed mid-animation
- Fix spacing in lock screen media notifications
- Plugged leak (also in 50.1)

#### 50.2 (2026-05-28)

- Fix extending screenshot area selection to monitor edges
- Fix faulty German translations of several date/time formats
- Don't notify dash elements twice to screen reader
- Fix showing "Install Updates" checkbox in power-off/restart dialog
- Fix autorun notification for connected USB drives
- Fix spinner resetting on each key press in overview search
- Fix reapplying layout on xkb-options changes
- Fix wiggle feedback on non-password auth failures
- Only show audio input icon when actually recording

#### 50.1 (2026-04-14)

- Fix glitch in quick settings with wrapped text in menu

## Release notes

### 50.4

- Date: 2026-08-04
- Version: 50.4
- Original notes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/releases/50.4
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/releases/50.4

- **fixed** — Fix some menu animations
- **fixed** — Fix glitch when switching to minimized window on another workspace
- **fixed** — Fix miscaled magnified cursor on HiDPI
- **fixed** — Fix sound glitch when pushing redundant volume changes
- **fixed** — Fix removing arbitrary provider when removing unregistered search provider
- **fixed** — Misc. bug fixes and cleanups

50.4
====
* Fix some menu animations [Florian; !4237]
* Fix glitch when switching to minimized window on another workspace
  [Florian; !4199]
* Fix miscaled magnified cursor on HiDPI [Daniel; !4290]
* Fix sound glitch when pushing redundant volume changes [Andre; !4302]
* Fix removing arbitrary provider when removing unregistered search provider
  [htrex; !4308]
* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [Florian, Marco, Alessandro, Carlos, Joan;
  !4193, !4276, !4275, !4248, !4293, !4296, !4306, !4082, !4312]

Contributors:
  Alessandro Bono, Andre Eikmeyer, Carlos Garnacho, htrex, Florian Müllner,
  Joan Torres Lopez, Marco Trevisan (Treviño), Daniel van Vugt

Translators:
  Baurzhan Muftakhidinov [kk]

### 50.3

- Date: 2026-06-29
- Version: 50.3
- Original notes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/releases/50.3
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/releases/50.3

- **fixed** — Prevent workspaces from being removed mid-animation
- **changed** — Announce search result description to screen readers
- **changed** — Improve animation when expanding app grid label
- **fixed** — Fix spacing in lock screen media notifications
- **fixed** — Plugged leak
- **fixed** — Misc. bug fixes and cleanups

50.3
====
* Prevent workspaces from being removed mid-animation [Tony; !4014]
* Announce search result description to screen readers [Lukáš; !4251]
* Improve animation when expanding app grid label [Daniel; !4247]
* Fix spacing in lock screen media notifications [Florian; !4217]
* Plugged leak [Alessandro; !4258]
* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [Swagtoy, Andre, Alessandro, Florian;
  !4233, !4250, !4253, !4204]

Contributors:
  Alessandro Bono, Tony Chen, Florian Müllner, Andre Nijman, Swagtoy,
  Lukáš Tyrychtr, Daniel van Vugt

Translators:
  luming zh [zh_CN], Vasil Pupkin [be], Victoria Niedzielska [pl]

### 50.2

- Date: 2026-05-28
- Version: 50.2
- Original notes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/releases/50.2
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/releases/50.2

- **fixed** — Fix extending screenshot area selection to monitor edges
- **fixed** — Fix faulty German translations of several date/time formats
- **fixed** — Don't notify dash elements twice to screen reader
- **added** — Add rate control to VA-API H.264 screencast pipelines
- **fixed** — Fix showing "Install Updates" checkbox in power-off/restart dialog
- **fixed** — Fix autorun notification for connected USB drives
- **fixed** — Fix spinner resetting on each key press in overview search
- **fixed** — Fix reapplying layout on xkb-options changes
- **fixed** — Fix wiggle feedback on non-password auth failures
- **changed** — Open session/a11y menu on login screen on either button
- **fixed** — Only show audio input icon when actually recording

50.2
====
* Fix extending screenshot area selection to monitor edges [Ramez; !4158]
* Fix faulty German translations of several date/time formats
  [Andre; Translation/de#88]
* Don't notify dash elements twice to screen reader [Sergio; !4182]
* Add rate control to VA-API H.264 screencast pipelines [Mikhail; !4171]
* Fix showing “Install Updates” checkbox in power-off/restart dialog
  [Milan; !4185, !4188]
* Fix autorun notification for connected USB drives [Sebastian; !4187]
* Fix spinner resetting on each key press in overview search [Vicente; !4191]
* Fix reapplying layout on `xkb-options` changes [Sebastian; !4205]
* Fix wiggle feedback on non-password auth failures [Joan; !4209]
* Open session/a11y menu on login screen on either button [Florian; !4225]
* Only show audio input icon when actually recording [Herman; !4218]
* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [Bilal, fthx, Marco, Florian; !4176, !4077,
  !4183, !4184, !4180, !4135, !4194, !4197, !4201, !4198, !4210, !4220]

Contributors:
  Vicente Bertolotti, Sergio Costas Rodriguez, Milan Crha, Bilal Elmoussaoui,
  Herman Fries, fthx, Mikhail Gavrilov, Saikeo Kavhanxay, Sebastian Keller,
  Ramez Medhat, Florian Müllner, Liam Rust, Joan Torres Lopez,
  Marco Trevisan (Treviño)

Translators:
  Andre Klapper [de], Kjartan Maraas [nb], Nathan Follens [nl], Jose Riha [sk],
  Saikeo Kavhanxay [lo], luming zh [zh_CN], Bjørn Mørkedal [nn],
  Flynn Peck [kw], Vasil Pupkin [be]

### 50.1

- Date: 2026-04-14
- Version: 50.1
- Original notes: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/releases/50.1
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/gnome-shell/releases/50.1

- **changed** — Use triangular noise shape for dithering lightbox vignette
- **fixed** — Fix glitch in quick settings with wrapped text in menu
- **changed** — Fit on-screen keyboard better on very small screens
- **added** — Enable network agent on lock screen
- **added** — Add basic zoom support to captive portal
- **fixed** — Plugged leak

50.1
====
* Use triangular noise shape for dithering lightbox vignette [Michel; !4137]
* Fix glitch in quick settings with wrapped text in menu [Sebastian; !4136]
* Fit on-screen keyboard better on very small screens [Sebastian; !4156]
* Enable network agent on lock screen [Mitchell; !4160]
* Add basic zoom support to captive portal [Florian; !4159]
* Plugged leak [Sebastian; !4168]
* Misc. bug fixes and cleanups [Daniel, Florian, DaPigGuy, Sebastian, Peter,
  rayjonesjay, Jonas, Bilal, Mohamed; !4139, !4141, !4142, !4143, !4146, !4148,
  !4151, !4152, !4155, !4148, !4151, !4150, !4162, !4165, !4169, !4153]

Contributors:
  Mohamed Abdulla, Mitchell Augustin, DaPigGuy, Michel Dänzer,
  Bilal Elmoussaoui, Peter Hutterer, Sebastian Keller, Florian Müllner,
  rayjonesjay, Daniel van Vugt, Jonas Ådahl

Translators:
  Марко Костић [sr], Flynn Peck [kw], Antonio Marin [ro],
  Victoria Niedzielska [pl], Ryo Nakano [ja], Jordi Mas [ca], Jose Riha [sk]