This is the list of main changes between major versions 7 and 8 of Appium java client. This list should help you to successfully migrate your existing automated tests codebase.

• Java client now supports Selenium 4, which also means it is strictly W3C compliant. Old JWP-based servers are not supported anymore, and it won't be possible to use the new client version with them. Capabilities that enforce the usage of JWP protocol on Appium drivers don't have any effect anymore.
• The recommended way to provide capabilities for driver creation is to use specific option builders inherited from BaseOptions class. For example XCUITestOptions to create a XCUITest driver instance or UiAutomator2Options to create an UiAutomator2 driver instance. If there is no driver-specific options class for your driver then either use BaseOptions builder as the base class to define your capabilities or request driver developers to add one. Do not use DesiredCapabilities class for this purpose in W3C context. Check unit tests for more examples on how to build driver options.

• All findBy* shortcut methods were removed. Consider using findElement[s](By. or AppiumBy.) instead.
• MobileBy class has been deprecated. Consider using AppiumBy instead.
• All locator names in AppiumBy have been aligned to follow the common (camelCase) naming strategy, e.g. MobileBy.AccessibilityId was changed to AppiumBy.accessibilityId.
• The changes made in Selenium 4 broke class name selector strategy in Appium. AppiumBy.className should be used instead of Selenium's By.className now.

• All methods that use TimeUnit class or where the time is passed as a simple numeric value were replaced with their alternatives using java.time.Duration class.

• The current event firing mechanism that Appium java client uses has been deprecated in favour of the one that Selenium 4 provides natively. Read The-event_firing.md for more details on how to use it.

• All AppiumDriver descendants and the base class itself are not generic anymore and work with WebElement interface only.
• The base Appium driver does not extend ContextAware, Rotatable and other mobile-specific interfaces. Instead, it only has the very basic set of methods. Mobile specific extensions have been respectively moved to IOSDriver and AndroidDriver.
• Removed the obsolete HasSessionDetails extensions as it was using legacy JWP calls to retrieve session details.
• DefaultGenericMobileDriver class has been removed. Now AppiumDriver is inherited directly from Selenium's RemoteWebDriver.

• DefaultGenericMobileElement class has been removed completely together with its descendants (MobileElement, IOSElement, AndroidElement etc.). Use WebElement instead.
• Due to the above change the page factory is now only creating elements that are instantiated from RemoteWebElement and implement WebElement interface.
• If you used some special methods that MobileElement or its descendants provided then change these:
  • replaceValue has been moved to the corresponding AndroidDriver instance and is called now replaceElementValue
  • use sendKeys method of WebElement interface instead of setValue.

• The TouchAction and MultiTouchAction classes have been deprecated. The support of these actions will be removed from future Appium versions. Please use W3C Actions instead or the corresponding extension methods for the driver (if available). Check
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAJ7jwMNFVU
  • https://appiumpro.com/editions/30-ios-specific-touch-action-methods
  • Android gesture shortcuts:
    • mobile: longClickGesture
    • mobile: doubleClickGesture
    • mobile: clickGesture
    • mobile: dragGesture
    • mobile: flingGesture
    • mobile: pinchOpenGesture
    • mobile: pinchCloseGesture
    • mobile: swipeGesture
    • mobile: scrollGesture
  • iOS gesture shortcuts:
    • mobile: swipe
    • mobile: scroll
    • mobile: pinch
    • mobile: doubleTap
    • mobile: touchAndHold
    • mobile: twoFingerTap
    • mobile: tap
    • mobile: dragFromToForDuration
    • mobile: dragFromToWithVelocity
    • mobile: scrollToElement
  • https://appiumpro.com/editions/29-automating-complex-gestures-with-the-w3c-actions-api for more details on how to properly apply W3C Actions to your automation context.

• AppiumDriver methods resetApp, launchApp and closeApp have been deprecated as they are going to be removed from future Appium versions. Check appium/appium#15807 for more details.

• The default URL the server is listening on has been changed, and it does not contain the /wd/hub suffix anymore (e.g. http://0.0.0.0:4723/wd/hub became http://0.0.0.0:4723/). This has been done in order to align the actual behavior with Appium v2. If you still would like to use v8 of the Java client with Appium v1.2x, where the server URL contains the /wd/hub suffix by default, then consider providing --base-path setting explicitly while building AppiumServiceBuilder instance (e.g. .withArgument(GeneralServerFlag.BASEPATH, "/wd/hub/")). Older versions of Appium server (v1.19 and older) won't work with AppiumDriverLocalService, because they don't allow provisioning of base path in form of a command line argument.