Node.js 16.x: What's New, Release History & EOL Status

What Is New in Node.js 16?

Apple Silicon Support -- Native M1 Binaries

Node.js 16 ships prebuilt binaries for Apple Silicon (arm64). Prior to this, M1 Mac users ran Node.js under Rosetta 2, which worked but had performance overhead. Native arm64 binaries eliminate that translation layer.

If you install Node.js via nvm or a Node version manager, make sure your version manager itself is running natively (arm64) -- otherwise it may install the wrong architecture binary.

npm 7 and Workspaces

Node.js 16 bundles npm 7, which introduces workspaces -- a first-class monorepo feature. You can define multiple packages in a single repository and run commands across all of them.

// package.json
{
  "workspaces": ["packages/*"]
}
// npm install at root now links all workspace packages

npm 7 also automatically installs peer dependencies, which is a behavior change from npm 6. This can cause install failures if peer dependency requirements in your dependency tree conflict.

Stable timers/promises and AbortController

The timers/promises module stabilizes in Node.js 16, providing promise-based setTimeout, setInterval, and setImmediate.

import { setTimeout } from 'node:timers/promises';
await setTimeout(1000);
console.log('1 second elapsed');

AbortController and AbortSignal are now globally available without import, matching the browser API. You can cancel fetch requests, timers, and other async operations using a single abort controller.

RegExp Match Indices (d flag)

V8 9.0 adds the d flag to regular expressions, which records start and end indices of each match. Useful for syntax highlighters, parsers, and code analysis tools.

const re = /foo/d;
const match = re.exec('foobar');
console.log(match.indices[0]); // [0, 3]