Angular 18: Key Features and Updates

Introduction

When it comes to web app development, Angular is one of the most popular choices among developers worldwide. Google’s renowned web development framework “Angular” has exceptional attributes, making it the first preference of those on the lookout for building a robust, scalable, and high-performance web application. 

Angular was already embellished with numerous features and functionalities, however, it introduced its latest version Angular 18 recently. The very update has brought considerable updates to enhance the web development experience. It lessens state complexity and increases the developer’s ability for app maintenance. 

In this article, we will assess Angular 18 and know what’s new in the same. Let’s explore how the new features and updates of Angular v18 can enhance your web development experience before you Hire AngularJS Developers!

What is New in Angular 18? Features & Updates

Angular 18, the latest version of Angular has brought up many features that aim for next-level of performance, enhanced scalability, and enriched user experiences. Let’s check these out!

Zoneless Applications

Angular has relied on zone.js, which caused many issues with the developer’s performance and experience. Therefore, Angular has been trying to find a way to avoid relying on zone.js. Thankfully, the Angular team has suggested an experimental API for zoneless change detection.

To make it work, you have to add provideExperimentalZonelessChangeDetection to your bootstrap application. 

Once you’ve done it, consider removing zone.js from your polyfills in angular. json.

bootstrapApplication(App, {

providers: [

provideExperimentalZonelessChangeDetection()

]

});

Using signals is an ideal way to employ zoneless in your components. 

@Component({

…

template: `

<h1>Hello from {{ name() }}!</h1>

<button (click)=”handleClick()”>Go Zoneless</button>

`,

})

export class App {

protected name = signal(‘Angular’);

handleClick() {

this.name.set(‘Zoneless Angular’);

}

}

TypeScript 4.7 Support

The latest Angular v18 tends to offer support for TypeScript 4.7 by releasing new features and enhancements. These features involve improved read-only support, template literal types, and new Import Types to ensure proper understanding of read-only keywords, perfection in template typing, and enhanced modularity of codes. All these features brought by Angular 18 will revolutionize the developer’s experience. 

Default Coalescing

With the latest Angular 18, we can use the scheduler for both zoneless apps and apps utilizing zone.js by enabling coalescing. Zone coalescing is enabled by default to lessen the number of change detection cycles and improve app performance. However, the feature is available only for new applications to reduce potential bugs. 

Consider integrating NgZone provider in bootstrapApplication, if you wish to opt for event coalescing for your ongoing project!  

bootstrapApplication(App, {

providers: [

provideZoneChangeDetection({ eventCoalescing: true })

]

});

Unified Control State Change Events

The newly released Angular v18 introduces a new property called events in the FormControl, FormGroup, and FormArray classes. It allows you to subscribe to a series of events for each form control. It provides you with intensive tracking of any changes in value, touch state, control status, and pristine status. This new feature allows you to use the following: 

const nameControl = new FormControl<string|null>(‘name’,

Validators.required);

nameControl.events.subscribe(event => {

// process the individual events

});

Hydration Support in CDK and Material

Why AngularJS 18 though? One of the key features of the new Angular 18 is the hydration compatibility for CDK components and Angular Materials. Now, all Angular Materials and CDK components with primitives are completely hydration compatible, ensuring frequent and uninterrupted rendering behavior.

Route Redirects with Functions

Angular 18 enables functions to handle redirects by utterly replacing the static strings in the redirectTo of the Route object. It’s intended to elevate the level of flexibility in routing. This function can simply parse an object with URL parameters and return a string or the UrlTree. It enhances the navigation and efficiency of web apps. 

const routes: Routes = [

{ path: “first-component”, component: FirstComponent },

{

path: “old-user-page”,

redirectTo: ({ queryParams }) => {

const errorHandler = inject(ErrorHandler);

const userIdParam = queryParams[‘userId’];

if (userIdParam !== undefined) {

return `/user/${userIdParam}`;

} else {

errorHandler.handleError(new Error(‘Attempted navigation to user page without user ID.’));

return `/not-found`;

}

},

},

{ path: “user/:userId”, component: OtherComponent },

];

Official Documentation Website

A new official documentation website is another one of the features of the new Angular 18 version. The newly declared official website for documentation in Angular is angular.dev. From now onwards, the requests to angular.io will be forwarded to angular.dev automatically. With a new look and feel, the new website provides a real-time experience with a tutorial in WebContainers. Besides, it provides a live playground for developers with examples and refreshed guides. 

Latest ng-template API

With many other features, the Angular v18 update introduces the new ng-template API. With the ng-template API, you no longer have to create new templates and user-specific selectors every time. Furthermore, the new API is reusable. 

Event Replay

The new Angular 18 update introduces the event replay feature as a developer preview which is enabled with EventReplay(). The feature ensures a seamless user experience for hybrid rendering powered by event dispatch. Powered by event dispatch, this feature ensures a next-level user experience for hybrid rendering.

bootstrapApplication(App, {

providers: [

provideClientHydration(withEventReplay())

]

});

Debugging Tools

Angular 18 is embedded with debugging tools, making testing and debugging applications easy. Since it provides real-time information on the application’s state, it helps debug with source maps, data binding, component trees, and performance profiling.

Enhancements & Updates Brought By Angular 18

The new Angular 18 has brought many enhancements and updates, letting you capitalize on the maximum capability of Angular:

Advanced Forms API

The update to the Forms API has made generating and validating forms easier, making the process much more flexible. 

Optimized AOT Compilation

The AOT compilation is optimized in the new Angular v18. It ensures fast processing for large-scale applications and smart integration with third-party APIs, lessening just-in-time compilation requirements.

Improved Performance with Ivy

The latest Angular 18 update uses Ivy compiler optimization to improve performance. This streamlines start time and improves Angular js performance while reducing bundle sizes.

Enhanced Reactivity Model

With its new reactivity model, Angular 18 simplifies data flow and state management. It mitigates the boilerplate code while optimizing the change detection and improving performance. It makes it convenient to manage complex state interactions. 

Improvement to Server-Side Rendering

The server-side rendering enhancements in Angular 18 include better pre-rendering, accelerated server-side hydration, and excellent support for Angular Universal. The improvement lessens the Time to Interactive (TTI) user experience, specifically when there’s slower network connectivity.

Accessibility Improvements

The new Angular v18 emphasizes accessibility improvement to ensure improved compliance with accessibility standards. The improvement makes it way more convenient for developers to develop inclusive web apps from the onset. 

Enhanced Debugging Experience

The new Angular 18 has enhanced the debugging experience. Angular DevTools tends to visualize the hydration process, simplifying debugging. Each and every component shows a specific icon for its hydration status. Besides, an overlay mode previews the components to ensure which component is hydrated on the page and identify if any error displays in the component explorer.

These are some new features and improvements to make note of! You can further explore Tips to Improve AngularJS Performance or connect with a dedicated Angular developer to make the most out of the update.

Wrapping Up!

That’s all there’s to it! The latest angular version update, Angular 18 has brought a considerable amount of features and updates to make Angular way more efficient. Right from zoneless applications to TypeScript 4.7 support and default coalescing to high-performance debugging tools, the new Angular v18 has a lot more to enhance your web app development experience. In this article, we comprehensively assessed the new Angular 18 and got familiar with what’s new in it. Contact us to discuss your project if you need Angular development!