Embarcadero RAD Studio 13.2 is now available

RAD Studio 13.2 Florence: Faster builds, better performance and smarter development

Software development teams are under constant pressure to deliver more, faster. Whether you're maintaining legacy applications, building cross-platform solutions, or exploring AI-powered experiences, every improvement in productivity counts.

That's why the release of RAD Studio 13.2 Florence is great. This update focuses on tangible developer benefits: faster builds, improved runtime performance, modern platform support, enhanced UI development tools, and new AI integration capabilities that help developers work more efficiently and deliver better applications.

What's new in RAD Studio 13.2

Build faster. Run faster.

One of the most impactful updates in RAD Studio 13.2 is the focus on speed.

The Delphi Linux 64-bit compiler has been upgraded to LLVM 20, bringing significant improvements to both compilation and runtime performance. Combined with new parallel code generation for Linux Intel 64-bit and Windows Arm64EC, developers can dramatically reduce build times by taking advantage of multiple processor cores.

In internal testing, Embarcadero reports:

• Up to 14x faster compilation for representative FireMonkey rebuilds
• Runtime performance improvements of 2-4x across several benchmarks
• Some workloads achieving speed increases of up to 7x
• Faster Linux linking and debugging

For development teams working with large applications, those time savings can quickly translate into increased productivity and faster release cycles.

Easier navigation for large codebases

As applications grow, finding your way around complex projects becomes just as important as writing code.

RAD Studio 13.2 integrates Navigator directly into the IDE, allowing developers to jump quickly between units, methods, symbols and types. Real-time navigation tools and editor minimaps make it easier to understand code structure, locate errors and manage breakpoints.

The result is less time searching and more time developing.

Improved support for modern platforms

Keeping applications aligned with modern hardware and operating systems can be challenging, especially when supporting long-established codebases.

RAD Studio 13.2 includes several platform enhancements designed to simplify modernisation efforts.

Better Windows on Arm support

Delphi applications targeting Windows Arm64EC can now create and use dynamic runtime packages. This helps organisations migrate applications to Windows on Arm while maintaining modular architectures and shared functionality.

Android updates

Developers targeting Android benefit from:

• Updated SDK and NDK support
• Updated Google AdMob integration
• Updated Google Maps libraries
• Access to Android's Age Verification APIs

Expanded database connectivity

FireDAC now supports:

• PostgreSQL 18.4
• Oracle CLOB prefetching
• IBM Informix connectivity through ODBC

Additionally, OAuth 2 Authorisation Code Flow with PKCE provides stronger authentication capabilities for modern applications.

More powerful C++ development

C++Builder users also receive meaningful improvements in 13.2.

Enhancements include:

• Improved compiler performance
• Better IDE integration
• More accurate build progress tracking
• Enhanced package handling
• Improved debugger reliability
• Structured compiler diagnostics

These updates make day-to-day C++ development more predictable and productive while reducing unnecessary rebuilds.

Build better user experiences

Creating modern interfaces is easier with new additions across both VCL and FireMonkey.

New VCL navigation controls

RAD Studio 13.2 introduces two new controls designed for modern Windows applications:

• TTabView: Provides flexible tab-based navigation with support for images, multi-line captions, scrolling and quick access actions.
• TNavigationView: Offers modern vertical navigation patterns with compact modes, drag-and-drop ordering and extensive customisation options.

These controls integrate with forms, pages, cards, frames and third-party components, helping developers create contemporary desktop interfaces more quickly.

Enhanced FireMonkey style designer

FireMonkey developers gain greater control over application styling.

New capabilities include:

• Launching the Style Designer directly from the IDE
• Importing VCL style format files
• Resource analysis tools
• Duplicate and broken reference detection
• Enhanced gradients and visual effects
• Improved text layout functionality
• Skia4Delphi 7.3 support
• Better Windows animations
• Per-Monitor v2 High DPI support

Together, these improvements provide greater flexibility when designing modern cross-platform user experiences.

Bringing AI into applications

AI continues to influence software development, and RAD Studio 13.2 expands the options available to Delphi and C++ developers.

Redesigned SmartCore AI components

The new SmartCore AI architecture simplifies integration with leading AI platforms, including:

• OpenAI
• Anthropic Claude
• Google Gemini
• Ollama

Developers can add conversational AI, content generation, image generation and structured responses without creating separate integrations for each provider.

MCPConnect support

RAD Studio 13.2 also introduces MCPConnect, a new library for building Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

This allows organisations to expose existing application functionality, business logic and data to compatible AI assistants and agents. By handling protocol infrastructure such as routing, schema generation and session management, MCPConnect reduces the complexity of connecting applications to the emerging AI ecosystem.