In today’s crowded app market, standing out is brutal. Billions of apps exist, but only a handful truly capture user hearts. Why? Because most lack the key ingredients for success: seamless interfaces, top-notch accessibility, and blazing-fast performance.
This is where Angular comes in. This powerful open-source framework empowers developers to build apps that check all the boxes. Angular’s latest version, Angular 18, released on May 22nd, brings a wave of new features and improvements designed to supercharge your app’s performance, developer experience, and overall user satisfaction.
But before we dive into the exciting world of Angular 18, let’s take a quick step back and explore what makes Angular such a beloved framework…
Ditch the Overhead: Unleash Blazing-Fast Performance with Zoneless Change Detection
Angular has long relied on zone.js for change detection, but this came with a performance cost. Angular 18 introduces a revolutionary new approach: zoneless change detection!
Say goodbye to zone.js and hello to:
Faster initial render and runtime: Experience apps that load and respond in a snap.
Reduced bundle size: Leaner apps mean happier users with quicker page loads.
Crystal clear stack traces and debugging: Spend less time wrestling with cryptic errors.
Getting started is simple:
Add
provideExperimentalZonelessChangeDetectionto your application bootstrap.Remove zone.js from your polyfills.
Under the hood, zoneless change detection offers a more efficient way to track changes:
Targeted checks: Angular only triggers change detection when specifically instructed, like when a signal is updated.
Coalescing scheduler: Prevents redundant checks, ensuring smooth performance even with rapid user interactions.
The example above demonstrates how signals can be used for change detection:
Clicking the button updates a signal, triggering a refresh of the UI. This is similar to zone.js, but with a key difference: zoneless change detection is more precise and avoids unnecessary checks.
What's new in Angular 18: Latest Features and Updates
Angular 18 Gets Even Faster with Automatic Performance Boosts
Angular 18 introduces a game-changing optimization under the hood: automatic event coalescing. This means your apps will automatically run smoother and more efficiently without any extra configuration for new projects.
What is event coalescing?
Imagine you have a complex form with many inputs. Every time a user types in a field, Angular would traditionally re-render the entire form to check for changes. Event coalescing groups these events together, preventing unnecessary re-renders and boosting performance.
Why is this a big deal?
Faster apps: Automatic coalescing means your apps will feel snappier and more responsive, especially for users on slower connections.
Reduced bundle size: Less re-rendering means less code is needed, leading to leaner apps that load faster.
No extra work for you: This optimization is automatic for new Angular 18 projects, so you can focus on building amazing features.
For existing projects, you can still opt-in to event coalescing for a performance boost:
bootstrapApplication(App, {
providers: [
provideZoneChangeDetection({ eventCoalescing: true })
]
});
Use code with caution.
Bonus! Material 3 and Deferrable Views are Now Stable
On top of the performance improvements, Angular 18 also brings stability to two highly anticipated features:
Material 3: Build beautiful and modern UIs with the confidence of a stable component library.
Deferrable Views: Improve your app’s Core Web Vitals scores by loading non-critical views only when needed.
Built-in Control Flow Gets a Boost and Server-Side Rendering Goes Global
Angular 18 brings exciting advancements in two key areas: built-in control flow and server-side rendering.
Built-in Control Flow Now Stable:
Remember that new, super-speedy control flow introduced in Angular 17? It’s graduated to stable status in v18! This means you can confidently use it in your projects, along with these improvements:
Type Checking on Steroids: Write cleaner, more error-free code with enhanced type checking.
Alias Like a Boss: Enjoy more ergonomic implicit variable aliasing for a smoother development experience.
Performance Pitfalls Be Gone: Guardrails are now in place to prevent specific performance anti-patterns, keeping your app running at its best.
Server-Side Rendering Reaches New Heights:
Server-side rendering just got a whole lot more powerful with Angular 18:
Global i18n Support (Developer Preview): Finally! Hydration for i18n blocks is now available, paving the way for a flawless user experience regardless of language.
Supercharged Debugging: Angular DevTools gets an upgrade, making it easier to visualize and debug the hydration process. Identify and fix hydration issues with ease.
These advancements in built-in control flow and server-side rendering empower you to build even faster, more robust, and globally accessible Angular applications.
Gone are the days of wrestling with complex hosting setups for your Angular apps. Firebase App Hosting, announced at Google I/O this year, takes the hassle out of deployment, offering a one-stop shop for:
Performance and Scalability: Firebase App Hosting’s robust infrastructure ensures your Angular app stays fast and reliable as it scales.
Simplified Hybrid Rendering: No matter your rendering approach (server-side, pre-rendering, or client-side), Firebase App Hosting handles the complexities seamlessly.
Effortless Workflow: Streamline your development process with built-in framework support, seamless GitHub integration, and tight connections with other Firebase products like Authentication and Cloud Firestore.
Never Lose a User Interaction Again with Event Replay
Imagine a user clicks on “add to cart” before your app is fully loaded. With traditional setups, that interaction would be lost. Angular 18 introduces Event Replay, a game-changer for user experience. Here’s how it works:
Capturing User Actions: During slow connections, Angular 18 cleverly records user interactions like button clicks or form submissions.
Seamless Replay: Once the app is fully loaded, Event Replay flawlessly reenacts those captured actions, ensuring a smooth user experience despite initial delays.
Event Replay is currently in developer preview and can be easily enabled using withEventReplay().
Fully Hydrated Material and CDK Components
Angular 18 ensures a consistent and performant experience by making all Material and CDK components fully hydration-compatible. This means no more unexpected re-rendering issues that plagued previous versions.
Flexible Routing with Function-Based Redirects
Routing just got more powerful. Angular 18 lets you define redirects using functions. This enables you to create dynamic redirect logic based on your app’s state or other runtime information, providing ultimate control over user navigation.
Ready to Build the Future?
With its enhanced reactivity model, standalone components, improved build performance, and more, Angular 18 is the perfect framework for building high-quality, performant web apps.
Contact us today to learn how Angular 18 can help you take your development to the next level and create apps that drive growth and success!