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QGroundControl

DEVOPS
Velocity2.5

Ground control station for MAVLink drones and autonomous vehicles

qgroundcontrol.com ↗

QGroundControl rebuilt its flight UI around touch screens, then went quiet for ten months

dronesground-controlmavlinktouch-uicmake
◆Current state
QGroundControl shipped v5.0 in July 2025 after five release candidates, patched it through 5.0.8 in October, and then published nothing until a v5.1 release candidate at the end of July 2026. The v5.0 release was the substantive event: the Fly View toolbar, instrument selection, multi-vehicle telemetry and application settings were reworked, MAVLink 2 signing arrived, and the build system was converted entirely to cmake with qmake dropped. The patch line that followed was almost purely crash and platform fixes — Mac notarization, Android SD-card permissions for API 30+, parameter-loading crashes.
◆Where it's heading
The ten-month gap between 5.0.8 and the 5.1 candidate is the clearest signal in these entries: development moved off the release feed rather than stopping, since 5.1 arrives as an RC rather than a patch. The stated design intent from v5.0 — pushing flight-to-flight settings into the toolbar and reserving Vehicle Configuration for initial setup — is a durable direction, and the touch-screen focus points at integrated controllers like Herelink as the target hardware. The RC itself carries no changelog, deferring to an external What's New page.
◆Prediction
A v5.1 stable release should follow within weeks of the candidate, and on the v5.0 precedent it will be followed by a run of 5.1.x patches concentrated on platform packaging and crash fixes rather than features.

◆Recent moves

  1. 11d ago

    QGroundControl v5.1 - Release Candidate 1

    The first v5.1 candidate carries no changelog of its own, pointing at an external What's New page instead. Its significance is timing rather than content: it is the first release of any kind in ten months, confirming the 5.1 line exists.

    View source ↗
  2. 10mo ago

    QGroundControl v5.0.8 - Stable

    The last stable release before the long gap, and the one that made the Mac build properly installable through signing, notarization and stapling. The Android SD-card permission fix for API 30+ addresses the same theme the v5.0 rework targeted: making the app work on the mobile and integrated hardware pilots actually fly with.

    View source ↗
  3. 10mo ago

    QGroundControl v5.0.7- Stable

    A fix roll-up on the 5.0 line — parameter-loading crashes, gimbal indicator behaviour, QML signal leaks, ArduPilot flight-mode naming. Typical of the stabilization work that filled the months right after the v5.0 rearchitecture.

    View source ↗
  4. 1y ago

    QGroundControl V5.0 - Stable

    ⚡ SPARK

    This is the release the rest of the timeline orbits: the Fly View, application settings and vehicle configuration split were redesigned around flight-to-flight use, multi-vehicle and 3D map support expanded, and the build system was cut over to cmake. Everything after it in this window is patch work on what v5.0 changed.

    View source ↗
  5. 1y ago

    QGroundControl v5.0 - Release Candidate 5

    The fifth and final candidate before v5.0 stable, made up of crash fixes, layout corrections and PX4 battery-parameter handling. Pre-release stabilization of the features the stable release then announced.

    View source ↗
  6. 1y ago

    QGroundControl v5.0 - Release Candidate 4

    A candidate dominated by CI, cmake caching and Crowdin translation updates, with a scattering of board-ID additions. It shows the cmake migration being finished in the build pipeline before v5.0 shipped.

    View source ↗