migrationapimaintenance

From Workrooms to Deprecated APIs: How to Plan for Platform Sunsets in TypeScript Projects

UUnknown

2026-02-23

10 min read

Use Meta’s Workrooms shutdown (Feb 16, 2026) as a case study to plan TypeScript migrations, adapters, feature flags, and graceful deprecations.

When Platforms Close, Your TypeScript Codebase Shouldn’t Collapse — A 2026 Case Study

Hook: You woke up to an email: your upstream platform is shutting down. The SDK your team built against will stop responding in six weeks. Panic-mode deploys won’t cut it—your product and engineers need a calm, predictable migration. This article uses Meta’s Workrooms shutdown (standalone app discontinued on February 16, 2026) as a real-world case study to teach practical, TypeScript-first strategies for surviving — and benefiting from — platform sunsets.

Executive summary — What you must do first

Platform sunsets are inevitable in 2026’s fast-moving landscape: major vendors are consolidating products, shifting investments to AI and wearables, and deprecating legacy APIs. The most important early steps are:

Fast impact assessment: Find every point of integration (SDKs, webhooks, OAuth, data exports, device management).
Map contract boundaries: Catalog TypeScript types, runtime validators, and API clients that form the contract with the upstream platform.
Stabilize with adapters: Add a thin adapter/facade layer so your app depends on your own interfaces, not the vendor SDK directly.
Ship graceful fallbacks: Feature-flag replacements and fallback flows so customers don’t lose access overnight.

Why Meta’s Workrooms shutdown matters to TypeScript teams

Meta announced Workrooms would be discontinued as a standalone app on February 16, 2026. The decision came amid Meta’s Reality Labs cutbacks and shifting investment to other hardware and Horizon platform integrations. For teams that integrated Workrooms — through SDKs, OAuth, or device management — the shutdown is a classic upstream-deprecation incident:

“Meta said it made the decision to discontinue Workrooms as a standalone app as Horizon evolved to support a wide range of productivity apps and tools.”

Lessons for TypeScript teams:

Vendor decisions are business decisions — treat them as such in your engineering timelines.
Types are contracts but only if they’re owned and tested by you.
Runtime validation matters: TypeScript types alone don’t protect you from sudden API-changing shutdowns.

Core strategy: Own the contract, not the vendor

The most resilient pattern is to make your code depend on your own interface rather than the vendor's SDK. That way you can:

Swap implementations (e.g., vendor SDK → alternative service → stub) without changing business logic.
Introduce feature flags and rollouts around the adapter layer.
Keep a single source of truth for types used across backend/frontend.

Adapter / Facade pattern example (TypeScript)

Below is a minimal example showing how to define an interface and two implementations: a Workrooms client and a fallback that uses a generic meeting service.

// src/platform/types.ts
export type RoomInfo = {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  capacity: number;
};

// src/platform/api.ts
export interface MeetingPlatform {
  createRoom(name: string, capacity?: number): Promise;
  getRoom(id: string): Promise;
}

// src/platform/workroomsClient.ts
import { MeetingPlatform, RoomInfo } from './types';

/**
 * Thin wrapper around the vendor SDK or HTTP client.
 * Keep it small — only surface what your app needs.
 */
export class WorkroomsClient implements MeetingPlatform {
  constructor(private token: string) {}

  async createRoom(name: string, capacity = 8): Promise {
    const res = await fetch('https://api.meta.com/workrooms/rooms', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${this.token}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify({ name, capacity }),
    });
    const json = await res.json();
    return validateRoom(json); // runtime validation (see below)
  }

  async getRoom(id: string): Promise {
    const res = await fetch(`https://api.meta.com/workrooms/rooms/${id}`, {
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${this.token}` },
    });
    if (res.status === 404) return null;
    const json = await res.json();
    return validateRoom(json);
  }
}

// src/platform/fallbackClient.ts
import { MeetingPlatform, RoomInfo } from './types';

export class FallbackClient implements MeetingPlatform {
  async createRoom(name: string, capacity = 8): Promise {
    // implement an alternate flow (local DB, third-party meeting provider, etc.)
    return { id: 'local:' + Date.now(), name, capacity };
  }

  async getRoom(id: string): Promise {
    return null;
  }
}

// src/platform/index.ts
import { WorkroomsClient } from './workroomsClient';
import { FallbackClient } from './fallbackClient';
import { MeetingPlatform } from './types';

export function createPlatformAdapter(env: { useFallback?: boolean; token?: string }): MeetingPlatform {
  if (env.useFallback) return new FallbackClient();
  if (!env.token) throw new Error('Missing token for Workrooms');
  return new WorkroomsClient(env.token);
}

Why this works: Your application imports MeetingPlatform and never references the vendor SDK directly. When Workrooms shuts down, you can switch the adapter to a fallback without touching business logic.

Runtime validation — don’t trust types alone

TypeScript is a compile-time tool. When an upstream API changes or returns a shutdown page HTML instead of JSON, you need runtime checks. In 2026, teams increasingly pair TypeScript with lightweight validators (Zod, io-ts, or custom checks) and use them in the adapter layer.

Example: Zod-based runtime validation

import { z } from 'zod';

const RoomSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string(),
  name: z.string(),
  capacity: z.number().int().nonnegative(),
});

type RoomInfo = z.infer;

function validateRoom(raw: unknown): RoomInfo {
  try {
    return RoomSchema.parse(raw);
  } catch (e) {
    // Log and transform
    throw new Error('Invalid room payload');
  }
}

Use validators at the adapter boundary so your business code gets well-typed, safe data.

Deprecation signaling inside TypeScript

Make deprecations visible to developers immediately:

Use JSDoc @deprecated tags on types and functions.
Add compiler warnings via custom ESLint rules if you need stricter control.
Keep deprecated code paths guarded with feature flags until removed.

// src/platform/oldSdk.ts
/**
 * @deprecated Workrooms SDK will be removed after 2026-03-31. Use MeetingPlatform instead.
 */
export function oldCreateRoom(name: string) { /* ... */ }

Modern editors will surface @deprecated annotations, which reduces accidental usage.

Feature flagging and staged rollouts

Feature flags let you change behavior at runtime without code changes. When an upstream platform announces a sunset, use flags to:

Switch users to a fallback adapter gradually.
Run A/B tests to compare user retention and bug rates.
Instantly toggle back on if an alternative path fails.

Practical flagging approach

Introduce a platformMode flag scoped to users or orgs: values: auto | workrooms | fallback.
Default to auto which follows server recommendations and can shift based on signal.
Log events for every choice to capture metrics during the switch.

// simplified example
const platform = createPlatformAdapter({
  useFallback: featureFlags.get('platformMode') === 'fallback',
  token: process.env.WORKROOMS_TOKEN,
});

Backwards compatibility & versioning

Protect downstream consumers of your code by following these rules:

Semantic versioning: Bump major when you remove deprecated adapter behavior.
Types package: Publish a separate @yourorg/platform-types package. Lock types used across frontends and backends.
Deprecation timeline: Document and enforce a removal date — e.g., “Deprecated Feb 16 → removed Aug 16” — and automate reminders in PRs and release notes.

Testing your migration path

Good tests reduce release drama. In 2026, teams combine unit tests, contract tests, and staging smoke tests for migrations:

Unit tests for adapters (mock both vendor and fallback).
Contract tests (Pact or custom) to verify your expectations against vendor schemas.
End-to-end checks in a staging environment that simulates the vendor shutdown — for example, returning 410/Gone responses.

Simulating an API shutdown in tests

// jest + nock example
nock('https://api.meta.com')
  .post('/workrooms/rooms')
  .reply(410, { error: 'Workrooms discontinued' });

await expect(workroomsClient.createRoom('Team Sync')).rejects.toThrow('Invalid room payload');

Communication: stakeholders, customers, and docs

Engineers aren’t the only audience. Align timelines and messaging with product, legal, and customer success:

Publish a public deprecation timeline and migration guide for customers.
Provide export tools for customers to extract data before the shutdown.
Coordinate internal deprecation calendars so other teams can prepare.

Observability and telemetry during a sunset

Visibility is your safety net. Track these signals:

Adapter error rates and latency.
Feature flag rollout metrics and conversion.
Customer support tickets and churn rate for affected orgs.

Instrument adapters to emit structured events so you can quickly pivot between vendor and fallback flows.

Operational playbook — a 90-day migration plan

Use this plan when an upstream vendor announces a sunset with a fixed removal date (like the Workrooms announcement).

Day 0–7: Triage & Quick Wins

Inventory integrations (SDKs, webhooks, data flows).
Set up an incident channel and a shared timeline with product and CS.
Introduce the adapter if not already present; add runtime validation.

Day 8–30: Stabilize & Flag

Publish types package and remove direct vendor imports from business code.
Implement feature flags and start small-scale rollouts to noncritical users.
Run contract tests against vendor endpoints and simulated shutdowns.

Day 31–60: Migrate & Monitor

Switch significant traffic to fallback under a feature flag.
Track metrics closely and iterate on fallbacks and UX messages.
Keep logs of any schema mismatches to guide type updates or bug fixes.

Day 61–90: Remove & Release

Deprecation window closes: remove vendor-specific code behind a major release.
Publish migration notes, changelogs, and automated codemods if needed.
Hold a postmortem and capture lessons for future sunsets.

Advanced strategies — beyond the basics

For complex ecosystems, consider these forward-thinking tactics being adopted in 2026:

Contract-first hosts: Host your expected API contracts in a service like a contract registry so multiple teams can test against the same contract.
Backward-compatible feature flags: Maintain support for old and new behaviors concurrently with typed discriminated unions in TypeScript.
Automated codemods: Generate TypeScript-aware codemods (ts-morph) to migrate usages of deprecated APIs at scale.
CI policy gates: Block merges that reintroduce direct vendor dependencies using automated lint rules.

Example: Using discriminated unions for compatibility

type RoomV1 = { kind: 'v1'; id: string; name: string };
type RoomV2 = { kind: 'v2'; uuid: string; title: string; capacity?: number };

type Room = RoomV1 | RoomV2;

function roomName(r: Room) {
  if (r.kind === 'v1') return r.name;
  return r.title;
}

Cost & legal considerations

Platform sunsets can have direct financial and legal consequences. Your migration plan should include:

Data export compliance (GDPR/CCPA) and timelines.
Contract review for SLAs and vendor obligations.
Budget for new infrastructure if you’re replacing vendor-hosted services.

Real-world takeaway from the Workrooms shutdown

Meta’s decision to discontinue the standalone Workrooms app is a reminder: even large vendors pivot. Teams that built a thin adapter layer, owned their types, and had feature-flagged fallbacks were able to:

Switch user flows with minimal code changes.
Protect customers from abrupt service loss.
Learn from telemetry to choose long-term replacements.

Checklist — Immediate actions after a sunset announcement

Inventory code and data integrations with the vendor.
Create an adapter layer if missing.
Add runtime validation (Zod, io-ts) at integration boundaries.
Introduce feature flags and a staged rollout plan.
Set up contract and end-to-end tests that simulate the shutdown.
Communicate timelines to customers and internal stakeholders.
Publish a deprecation timeline and schedule a major release to remove deprecated code.

Final thoughts — prepare now, move confidently

Platform sunsets are part of the modern software landscape. In 2026, organizations are consolidating services and shifting toward AI-first investments — which means engineers will face more deprecations, not fewer. The antidote is simple but deliberate: own your contracts, keep runtime validation, guard with adapters, and use feature flags to move traffic safely.

Actionable next step: Add an adapter + Zod validation to any direct vendor client this week. Run a staging test that simulates a 410/Gone response and make sure your product behaves gracefully. If that takes under a day, you’ve improved your platform resilience dramatically.

Resources & further reading

Publish types in a separate package: <your-package>@types
Use Zod or io-ts for runtime validations
Introduce contract testing with Pact or custom golden schemas

Call to action

Facing an upstream shutdown or planning a migration? Download our free 90-day migration checklist, or contact our team for a TypeScript migration audit. Protect your users — and your developers — before the next platform sunset lands in your inbox.

Unknown

Contributor

Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.