In January 2018, the General Availability (GA) release of the .NET clients for Elasticsearch 6.x was announced, emphasizing full compatibility with Elasticsearch 6.0 and 6.1, while also preparing for future updates. The release involved significant changes, including serialization updates, the internalization of Newtonsoft.Json, and adjustments to accommodate the removal of multiple types in a single index. Major features introduced include a new serialization path for user-defined types, allowing greater customization without affecting core client functionality, and the ability to use any version of Newtonsoft.Json without conflict. The update also addressed breaking changes such as the need for separate indexes for different .NET types and introduced enhancements to client code generation and exception handling. The community's contributions were acknowledged as integral to the development of this release, and users were encouraged to explore and provide feedback on the new version.