December 2025 Platform Release Notes

HERE Transit Routing API v8 and HERE Intermodal Routing API v8

New feature release - serviceTimes

Transit service operating hours are now returned in responses from both the Transit Routing and Intermodal Routing APIs.

This new feature provides users with the opening and closing hours for transit services for each transit route at the departure station.

When users include serviceTimes in the return parameter (i.e., return=serviceTimes), the API response will include a serviceTimes object nested within each transit section's departure. This object contains firstTrip and lastTrip fields, indicating when the transit service begins and ends operations for that specific day.

For example:

"departure": {                        "time": "2025-12-03T13:53:00+01:00",                        "serviceTimes": {                            "firstTrip": "2025-12-03T05:53:00+01:00",                            "lastTrip": "2025-12-03T20:58:00+01:00"                        }                    }  

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The feature is entirely opt-in and offers full backward compatibility, ensuring that existing API requests continue to function.

Please visit the API Reference for details HERE Technologies Documentation | HERE Docs

Note that serviceTimes is an experimental feature and may not return accurate results for all routes.

HERE Data SDK for Java & Scala

Batch 5.0 runtime environment support for Spark 4.0.1 in batch pipelines

The Batch 5.0 runtime environment supporting Apache Spark 4.0.1 is now supported for HERE platform pipelines, replacing Batch 4.3 and Apache Spark 3.4.4.

• Beginning December 1, 2026, new releases starting from version 2.81.5 of the HERE Data SDK for Java & Scala will only support Apache Spark 4.0.1.

• Apache Spark 4.0.1 addresses many existing vulnerabilities. These include:

  • CVE-2019-20444, CVE-2019-20445, CVE-2015-2156, CVE-2022-23305, CVE-2019-17571, CVE-2021-4104, CVE-2023-26464, CVE-2022-23302, CVE-2022-23307, CVE-2023-44981, CVE-2017-5637, CVE-2018-8012. These vulnerabilities were addressed by upgrading org.apache.curator:curator-client, org.apache.curator:curator-framework, and org.apache.curator:curator-recipes libraries from version 2.13.0 to 5.7.1

  • CVE-2023-25613, CVE-2024-25638. These vulnerabilities were addressed by upgrading the commons-beanutils:commons-beanutils library from version 1.9.4 to 1.11.0

  • CVE-2024-7254, CVE-2023-2976, CVE-2020-8908. These vulnerabilities were addressed by upgrading com.google.protobuf/protobuf-java from version 3.19.0 to 4.32.0

For more information about this upgrade, refer to the migration guides.

Action required - Deprecated pipeline Batch 4.3 runtime environment for batch pipelines will no longer be supported as of January 1, 2027.

The Batch 4.3 runtime environment supporting Apache Spark 3.4.4 is deprecated as of January 1, 2026.

Both Batch 4.3 (Apache Spark 3.4.4) and Batch 5.0 (Apache Spark 4.0.1) will be supported between January 1, 2026, and January 1, 2027, letting you migrate to Batch 5.0 before the end of support for Batch 4.3.

Existing batch pipelines using the Batch 4.3 runtime environment will continue to operate normally until January 1, 2027. During the transition period, the Batch 4.3 runtime environment will only receive security patches. You can continue to use the HERE Data SDK for Java & Scala 2.80.2 for developing pipelines with the Batch 4.3 environment until you upgrade.

On January 1, 2027 the Batch 4.3 runtime environment will be removed.

You can migrate your batch pipelines to the new Batch 5.0 (Spark 4.0.1) runtime environment to benefit from the latest functionality and improvements. For more details about migrating an existing batch pipeline to the new Batch-5.0 runtime environment, see the migration guide.

HERE Vector Tile API

• Added intersection names and traffic lights to the pois layer.

• The Japan map now uses full names for Japanese municipality administrative labels at zoom levels greater than 12.

• Updated the Japan aza adminstrative labels to use full names as primary labels for improved readability and consistency.

• Implemented the correct POI filtering for the quality score to ensure accurate display of points of interest.

• Separated the POI premium categories into a dedicated OMV layer for Japan to improve the map organization and rendering performance.

HERE Raster Tile API and Map Image API

• The Japan map now uses full names for Japanese municipality admin labels at zoom levels greater than 12.

• The Japan map now uses full names as primary labels for Japanese aza administrative labels.

• Implemented the correct POI filtering for the quality score in the Japan map.

HERE Real Time Traffic

• Enabled a new Incident provider for the Spain region.

• Improved coverage for TML 3.4 regional protobuf feeds.

HERE Studio

End of Support for HERE Studio

The HERE Studio product, which has been in the maintenance phase since 2021, is being discontinued. The HERE Studio webtool is also being retired, and it will be removed from the platform in Q2 2026.

HERE Tour Planning API

• Unassigned jobs now return multiple reason codes, providing complete visibility into all constraint violations simultaneously. This helps you quickly identify whether a job fails due to capacity, skills, time windows, or other constraints, enabling faster problem resolution and better decision-making.

• Vehicle profile options (avoid, exclude, and vehicle-specific attributes) now support problems with locations distributed up to a 490 km radius, enabling greater flexibility for regional and long-haul logistics operations.

• Added support for shared parking places with customizable durations per vehicle type via the fleet.shared.parking parameter. This improves accuracy for urban delivery scenarios where parking time varies by vehicle size or type.

• Enhanced clustering algorithm now optimizes stop groupings for pedestrian profiles, minimizing walking distance between clustered stops. This is particularly beneficial for last-mile delivery with foot couriers and walking tours.

• Maximum limits for shiftTime and maxDrivingTime increased from 86,400 seconds (1 day) to 604,800 seconds (7 days), supporting long-haul operations and multi-day shifts without requiring problem splitting.

What’s In The Works

HERE Map Attributes API

Request Length Limit of 8,000 Characters

Beginning in December 2025, HERE Map Attributes (RME, WSE, GFE) API v8 will no longer support GET requests with HTTP requests longer than 8,000 characters. To ensure that your solution remains fully functional, use POST requests, or limit the request length to fewer than 8,000 characters. For more information about the available endpoints and methods, see the HERE Map Attributes - API Reference.

Map Attributes API

Maintenance mode for Cellular Signal Layer

The HERE Cellular Signal content product is now in maintenance status, and will only receive critical updates. Accordingly, the Cellular Signal Layer in the Map Attributes API is also now in maintenance status. There will be no further content updates beginning Q1 2026.