What's New in Angular 18: Key Features and Updates

Angular 18: What's new? 

Overview of Angular 18 Update

The long-awaited latest Angular 18 update is here! It focuses on stability, addresses developer feedback, and introduces exciting features like zoneless change detection. Angular has truly made a hype with this update. This update makes web development easier. It reduces state complexity and improves developers' ability to maintain apps.

In this article, we will discuss the latest features and upgrades that have been introduced in the latest Angular update, without further ado. Let's get started.

What is Angular?

Angular is an open-source and popular framework powered by Google for building web applications. It's designed for creating single-page applications. 

This has evolved significantly over the years, with each version bringing new features, updates to existing features, improvements, and optimizations. Angular offers tools, APIs, and libraries to help developers build fast, reliable apps with an easy and efficient workflow.

List of Major Latest Features of Angular 18

The Angular framework keeps improving with each major release. Angular 18, the newest major update, introduces thrilling new features and improvements designed to make your development experience more efficient, enjoyable, and productive.

The latest version, Angular 18, brings features for better performance, scalability, and user experiences. Check them out!

• Zoneless Change Detection

One of the most anticipated features in Angular v18 is the experimental support for zoneless change detection. Historically, Angular relied on Zone.js to trigger change detection, a mechanism that often came with performance drawbacks and complications in the developer experience.

The new zoneless approach is designed to address these issues by removing the dependency on Zone.js. 

This change promises a range of benefits, including faster initial render times, smaller bundle sizes, more readable stack traces, and simplified debugging processes.

Angular 18, however, adds an experimental feature named `provideExperimentalZonelessChangeDetection` to the application bootstrap and removes dependency on Zone.js from the polyfills.

• Angular.dev Launch 

In an effort to provide a more intuitive and hands-on experience for developers, Angular has launched a new documentation website, angular.dev. 

This modernized platform replaces angular.io and offers a heap of resources, including interactive tutorials, improved search functionality powered by Algolia, and a refreshed look and feel.

• Default Coalescing

In Angular 18, you can now use the scheduler for both zoneless apps and apps using zone.js by enabling coalescing. This feature reduces the number of change detection cycles and boosts app performance. It's turned on by default for new apps to avoid potential bugs.

If you want to use event coalescing in your current project, consider adding the NgZone provider in bootstrapApplication.

• Material 3 Update 

Material 3 previously was an unstable experimental feature; now with this V18 update, components have been thoroughly tested and refined, offering developers a reliable set of UI components with updated themes and documentation.

Moreover, its built-in control flow and deferrable views, introduced in earlier versions, are now stable. 

• Server-Side Rendering and Hydration Improvements 

Server-side rendering (SSR) has received significant improvements in Angular v18. Notably, the new release includes support for i18n hydration, allowing applications to better handle internationalization during SSR. 

Furthermore, the introduction of event replay, powered by Google’s internal event dispatch library, ensures that user interactions are not lost during the hydration process. 

This feature is particularly useful in scenarios where users interact with a page before it is fully loaded, as Angular can now record these interactions and replay them once the page is ready.

• Improve Debugging Experience

Debugging Angular applications has become even more powerful with the latest updates to Angular DevTools. 

The tool now visualizes the hydration process, showing the hydration status of each component and highlighting any errors that occur. 

Developers can enable an overlay mode to see which components have been hydrated, making it easier to identify and fix hydration issues. 

• Updates to Angular CLI

The Angular Command Line Interface (CLI) has also received major updates, making it easier to scaffold, build, and maintain Angular applications. These updates include new commands, improved documentation, and better integration with other tools.

The Angular CLI (Command Line Interface) is essential for managing your Angular projects. Here’s how to update it:

• First, uninstall the current Angular CLI globally:

npm uninstall -g @angular/cli

• Install the latest version of Angular CLI:

npm install -g @angular/cli@latest

• Update the local Angular CLI in your project:

ng update @angular/cli

• Next, update the Angular core and other related packages:

ng update @angular/core

• Improve ARIA Support

Angular 18 includes improved support for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), making it easier to create applications that are accessible to all users.

Use attribute binding to manage accessibility attributes. For ARIA attributes in Angular, remember to use the attr. prefix, as ARIA relies on HTML attributes, not DOM element properties.

• Other Additional Updates 

Angular v18 includes several other noteworthy updates. Developers can now specify fallback content for `ng-content`, streamlining the process of handling default content. Unified control state change events provide a new way to track changes in form controls, enhancing form management capabilities.

The new build system, based on Vite with Esbuild, simplifies the migration process, and support for TypeScript 5.4 brings the latest TypeScript features to Angular developers.

The Angular community has also been actively contributing to this release. Popular state management libraries such as Ngrx, Ngxs, and rxAngular now support Angular signals, enabling fine-grained reactivity. 

Analog.js now offers features like file-based routing and API routes. Additionally, the TanStack ecosystem has introduced Angular adapters for their store, query, and forms libraries.

Last Thoughts!

Angular v18 brings a host of new features and updates that enhance performance, developer experience, and security. With faster compilation times, improved developer tools, and advanced TypeScript support, Angular 18 is a powerful tool for building modern web applications. The future of Angular looks bright, with ongoing updates and improvements ensuring that it remains a top choice for developers.

FAQs

What even is Angular 18?

Angular 18 is the latest version of the popular Angular framework, offering new features and improvements for building web applications.

How do I update to Angular 18? 

To update to Angular 18, follow the official migration guide provided by the Angular team, which includes tools and best practices for a smooth transition. Still confused? Contact our team and leverage our Angular consultation services to get a head start. 

What are the key benefits of Angular 18? 

Key benefits of Angular 18 include improved

• Performance
• Enhanced developer tools
• Advanced TypeScript support 
• Improved Security 

Is Angular 18 backward compatible? 

Yes, Angular 18 is backward compatible with previous versions.

Where can I find more resources on Angular 18? 

You can find more resources on Angular 18 on the official Angular website, including documentation, tutorials, and community forums.