UI16 Deprecation and Service Operations Workspace Mandate

[Khanna Ji]

Hi Team,

We're planning our ServiceNow modernization roadmap. Current status:

• Still on UI16 + Service Portal
• Upgrade to Brazil this year end

Two questions:

1. What is the official end-of-support date for UI16?
2. Will SOW eventually become mandatory for ITSM, or remain optional?

We've looked at release notes and community threads, but can't find published timelines. Any official guidance?

Washington DC release notes said : UI16 in maintenance-only

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi  

ServiceNow has not officially announced the deprecation of the UI16 or SP interface yet., but it's a good idea to start using the Next Experience instead.

Please note that there hasn't been an official announcement from ServiceNow stating that the native UI has been completely removed. However, ServiceNow recommends using the Service Operations Workspace (SOW) as it offers an enhanced experience with almost all the same functionality as the native interface.

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/release-notes/rn-summary-deprecated-info.html

Starting with the Australia release, the legacy user interfaces commonly referred to as UI11 and UI15 are deprecated. These legacy UIs no longer receive enhancements, defect fixes, and will no longer be supported. Certain system features may continue to display through legacy rendering paths (for example, printer‑friendly views) and will be addressed case by case as part of ongoing platform improvements. Use the Next Experience for a modern, accessible, unified interface. For information activating Next Experience see Considerations for activating Next Experience.

[Tanushree Maiti]

Hi @Khanna Ji 

1) ServiceNow has not announced an official end-of-support date for the UI16 (Core/Classic) interface.

While organizations has been strongly encouraged to transition to the modern Next Experience UI (Polaris) and specialized Workspaces, UI16 remains supported for backward compatibility and navigation.

Users are heavily encouraged to adopt the Next Experience UI, which features modern theming, Dark Mode, and unified navigation

2) As of 2026, the Service Operations Workspace for ITSM remains optional but highly recommended by ServiceNow for standard IT service management.