Looker release notes

The Looker extension for VS Code is now generally available, enabling local LookML development and AI-assisted "vibe coding" using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This update introduces an interactive onboarding walkthrough, support for populating workspaces from bare repositories, and enhanced synchronization between local Git branches and Looker Development Mode. Additional improvements include support for OAuth with the Kiro IDE and more secure storage of API client secrets.

The deprecation of the Looker Mobile (Legacy) application has been postponed to January 31, 2027. Starting on January 31, 2027, support for the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app will be discontinued and the app will be unavailable for download from the App Store or Play Store. Although users will still be able to use the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app if they already have it installed, we recommend that you install the non-legacy Looker mobile app.

Looker 26.16 will roll out to Looker (original) instances on the following schedule:

• Expected deployment start: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
• Expected final deployment and download available: Sunday, September 20, 2026

Looker 26.16 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes.

An issue has been fixed where IAM administrators on Looker (Google Cloud core) instances failed authentication when the auth_requires_role and strict Group Role Mapping were enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where logging in with a Google Cloud Workforce Identity within an embedded iframe could fail as a result of frame restrictions or because the authentication popup closed before session cookies were established. This feature now performs as expected.

Now available in preview, the Admin Assistant helps you use natural language to manage Looker roles.

The Semantic Search feature is now generally available.

An issue has been fixed where switching to a histogram visualization in an Explore could fail or revert unexpectedly. Additionally, stack resolution on pivoted histograms has been improved. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where the alert creation and edit modal displayed Method instead of defaulting to Email as the notification method. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where embedded dashboards with numerous filters caused horizontal container overflow, prevented filters from wrapping across rows, and resulted in clipped tiles during PDF and PNG exports.

An issue has been fixed where custom themes configured as the instance default were not applied to dashboards in view-only mode or during dashboard navigation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboard URLs that were opened from the search page contained encoded colons (%3A%3A), which prevented filter interactions from updating URL query parameters. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where Single Value visualizations and KPI visualizations would not allow creating a comparison against a non-measure table calculation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where visualization-level filters could not be edited or deleted because of missing popover menus. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where resizing an Explore that contained a Word Cloud visualization could cause the Explore to crash. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where generating LookML for analytic models without selecting any database tables could cause Looker to create views for all database tables and to drop certain properties because of identifier case sensitivity. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where filter context banners and timezone settings were not preserved when generating PNG downloads from drill menus. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where applying pivots to merge queries could cause visualization errors and blank column headers in the results table. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where standalone tile exports from embedded dashboards with filter context could render off-screen or with clipped visualizations in PDF and PNG formats. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where clearing all text from a dashboard note tile failed to persist upon page refresh. This feature now performs as expected.

The BigQuery High Throughput API has been disabled by default to prevent connection errors for environments without bigquery.readsessions.create permissions. Additionally, required JVM flags for JDK 11 environments have been added. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where multi-line prompt text in dashboard chat views caused action buttons (such as the Thinking toggle and Send button) and vertical scrollbars to be misaligned. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where pinned Looks on boards generated broken URLs that redirected to the home page and failed to dynamically reflect title updates. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where selecting a suggestion could reset the dropdown to a loading spinner. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where collapsible navigation items in the Admin panel and the main navigation pane rendered rectangular focus outlines rather than rounded focus indicators during keyboard navigation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where typed search strings persisted after you selected an autocomplete suggestion in multi-select filters. This feature now performs as expected.

When you duplicate a user-defined dashboard, associated Looker data agent instructions, configurations, and sources are now preserved on the copied dashboard.

Self-service models have been restricted to only their assigned user database connections, preventing unintended instance-wide database connection access.

Boxplot visualizations now render transparent median dividers and borders properly in inverted and dark theme layouts.

OpenJDK 11 will no longer be supported as of January 14, 2027. Customer-hosted instances must upgrade to OpenJDK 21.

Localized data processing for European Union (EU)-based customers now applies to all Conversational Analytics data agents, including agents that are associated with Looker Explores, user-defined dashboards, and LookML dashboards. This support means that localized data processing now applies to all Conversational Analytics in Looker features.

Note: This item was added September 9, 2026.

The Looker Mobile (Legacy) application is no longer available for download from the App Store or Play Store and support for the app has been discontinued. Although users will still be able to use the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app if they already have it installed, we recommend that you install the non-legacy Looker mobile app.

Note: The deprecation of the Looker Mobile (Legacy) application has been postponed to January 31, 2027. This item was updated on September 9, 2026.