Is UTF-16 still used?

Yes, UTF-16 is still used internally by some systems like Windows, Java, and JavaScript engines, though UTF-8 has become dominant for data interchange and JSON. Windows API and .NET use UTF-16 (UCS-2) internally for string representation. Java and JavaScript strings are stored as UTF-16 in memory. However, for file storage, network transmission, and JSON data, UTF-8 is now standard. UTF-16's internal use is mostly transparent to developers as systems automatically convert to UTF-8 for external communication. For JSON specifically, always use UTF-8 encoding even if your programming language uses UTF-16 internally. The conversion happens automatically during serialization. Our JSON tools at jsonconsole.com work with UTF-8 encoded JSON, ensuring compatibility across all platforms regardless of their internal string representation. UTF-16's usage continues but is increasingly limited to internal system operations rather than data exchange.