December 2025 Summaries

Apollo has announced the end of support for Router v1.x, including version v1.61.x LTS, and Federation v2.9, effective March 31, 2026, as part of its updated Long-Term Support (LTS) policy aimed at providing a predictable and stable release cycle. Users operating on these versions are encouraged to upgrade to Router v2.10 and Federation v2.12, which were released on December 12, 2025, as the new LTS versions that will receive critical security patches and reliability updates until September 2026. The updated LTS policy involves annual major Router releases with 12 months of active development, and recurring LTS releases every six months, each supported for nine months with an additional three months for Premier Support customers. Apollo emphasizes the importance of upgrading to minimize operational risks and assures continued support during the transition to ensure powerful and future-proof API infrastructure.

In December 2025, Andrew McGivery discusses the potential of building conversational apps for ChatGPT using Apollo MCP Server and Apollo Client, following OpenAI's introduction of the ChatGPT Apps SDK. These apps are designed to be integrated directly into the ChatGPT interface via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing users to interact seamlessly with action-oriented conversational applications and follow-up queries. The MCP apps spec is being proposed as a standardized method for creating such applications, aiming to simplify the process for developers by abstracting AI provider details and enabling a "build once, deploy anywhere" approach. McGivery introduces a tutorial on creating these apps using familiar tools like Apollo Client and Apollo MCP Server, which eliminates the need for complex server configurations and empowers developers to focus on user experience rather than protocol intricacies. He emphasizes the early stage of these conversational apps, comparing their potential impact to the early days of mobile apps, and expresses optimism about their future proliferation in the industry.

Apollo GraphQL is enhancing its presence in San Francisco by opening a new headquarters at 201 California Street, a move aimed at reinforcing its commitment to innovation and collaboration in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. This new office is designed to facilitate teamwork, customer interactions, and relationship building, emphasizing the importance of being located where significant technical discussions occur. Despite this physical expansion, Apollo remains committed to its distributed work model, continuing to support remote work and actively hiring for various roles. By establishing a dedicated office in San Francisco, Apollo aims to accelerate decision-making and remain at the forefront of technological advancements during a pivotal era of development.

At the GraphQL Summit 2025, Delivery Hero highlighted how utilizing a two-layer Apollo supergraph architecture significantly enhanced their UX experimentation capabilities across various brands and markets. Initially, their attempt at a fully server-driven UI proved inefficient due to its complexity and slow adoption. The breakthrough came when they segregated business logic and UI presentation, allowing for faster configuration changes and reducing the need for lengthy release cycles. The adoption of Apollo GraphQL with Apollo Federation and Apollo Router facilitated a scalable and efficient platform, enabling real-time experimentation and rapid iteration. This architecture streamlined data requests from 80 fields to just four, improving performance and reducing design cycle times from three months to one week. The initiative not only improved technical efficiency but also strategically positioned Delivery Hero to compete in fast-paced markets by allowing product managers to experiment without waiting for new app releases.