Unity takes over External Dependency Manager
EDM is now an official Unity package for Android and iOS native dependencies, forked from Google's EDM4U. Google deprecates EDM4U on 26 October; EDM is free for Unity 2022.3 and later.
Unity has released External Dependency Manager (EDM), an official Unity package for handling native Android and iOS dependencies, announced on 29 September and distributed through the Unity Package Manager. At the same time, Google has announced that its External Dependency Manager for Unity (EDM4U) will be deprecated on 26 October 2026.
EDM is built on a fork of EDM4U and will be maintained by Unity, with engine compatibility, feature updates and bug fixes. It is free for Unity 2022.3 and later and reads the same XML dependency files that SDKs already use with EDM4U, so Unity expects existing projects to migrate without rewriting their setup. To switch, install it from the Package Manager's Unity Registry and pick it as the active dependency manager; Unity asks which one to use if EDM4U is already present, and nothing is deleted.
If EDM4U came into your project through an SDK, Unity advises keeping it until that SDK moves to EDM. SDK maintainers can follow Unity's distributor guide to recommend EDM.
Why it matters: most mobile games ship several SDKs for ads, analytics and notifications, each with native libraries that can conflict. EDM resolves them through Gradle, CocoaPods or Swift Package Manager. With EDM4U's deprecation date close, mobile teams on Unity should plan the switch now.
Source: Unity blog (official post, opens in a new tab)
