Angular 20: Features, Changes, and What’s New

Angular 20 marks a pivotal update in the evolution of Google’s web framework, offering enhanced reactivity, simplified syntax, and performance improvements.

Whether you're building enterprise-scale applications or modern SPAs, Angular 20 empowers developers with a more streamlined and efficient development experience.

Enhanced Template Syntax

Angular 20 brings templates closer to JavaScript, enabling developers to write more expressive and concise code.

• Exponential Operator (**) – Perform calculations directly in templates.
• in Operator Support – Check if a property exists in objects directly within templates.
• Tagged Template Literals – Use tagged template functions within interpolations.

Benefits:

• Cleaner and more intuitive code
• Less need to push logic into TS files
• Better tooling and syntax highlighting

New Control Flow Blocks: @if and @for

Replacing traditional *ngIf and *ngFor, Angular now introduces:

• @if – Includes else support, closer to JS conditionals.
• @for – Native-like loop structure for easier comprehension.

Why It Matters:

• Improves readability and reduces boilerplate
• Easier for devs migrating from React/Vue

Signals, Effects & Resource API

Signals (Now Stable)

A reactive primitive for managing state:

const counter = signal(0);
function increment() {
  counter.set(counter() + 1);
}

• Fine-grained updates
• Replaces many common RxJS cases
• Reduces the need for manual ChangeDetectorRef use

Effects API (Stable)

Manage side effects in a reactive, signal-based way.

• onCleanup() for safe teardown
• Similar to React’s useEffect

Resource API

• Bridges async logic (like API calls) with signals
• Makes reactive data fetching cleaner and more declarative

Zoneless Angular (Developer Preview)

Angular 20 introduces zoneless change detection, removing Zone.js as a dependency.

• Use provideZonelessChangeDetection() to opt-in
• Manual or signal-based change detection
• Cleaner stack traces and smaller bundles

Not yet production-ready but a glimpse into Angular’s future.

SSR & Hydration Improvements

Angular 20 supercharges server-side rendering:

• Incremental Hydration – Hydrate page sections progressively
• Route-Level Rendering – Fine-grained SSR/pre-render/client strategy
• Event Replay – Ensures UI interactivity after hydration
• Prefetching Parameters – Better multi-page SEO and performance

Benefits:

• SEO improvements
• Faster first-page loads
• Flexible rendering strategies

CLI Enhancements

• New CLI Schematics – Automate migrations to signals, @if, @for, etc.
• Deploy Tooling – Easier deployment to Firebase, Azure, etc.
• Accessibility Warnings – Real-time alerts in dev for a11y best practices

Angular Material & CDK

• Material 3 Tonal Buttons – Brings updated styling options
• CDK Accordion (Experimental) – New primitives for accessible collapsible panels

Selectorless Components

New flexibility for component usage:

• Import components directly without adding selectors
• Works well with standalone components
• Reduces boilerplate and speeds up refactoring

Modernized Testing

• Karma Deprecated – Replaced by:
  • Web Test Runner – Native browser testing
  • Vitest – Lightning-fast, ESM-ready unit testing

Accessibility & Security Enhancements

• Accessibility Primitives – Community-driven best practices
• CLI A11y Warnings – Get alerts during development
• Stronger Defaults – More secure applications out of the box

Signal-Based Forms (Experimental)

Forms are now reactive-first:

• Built on signals
• Scales better with complex forms
• Enables instant validation via computed signals

Two-Way Binding for Dynamic Components

Angular 20 introduces two-way binding for runtime-created components:

• Great for modals, generators, and dynamic content
• Reduces need for manual output/event handling

Cleanup & Deprecations

• Deprecated: ng-reflect-*, TestBed.get(), @angular/platform-server/testing
• Removed: InjectFlags
• SSR Testing: E2E testing now recommended

Smaller Bundles, Faster Loads

• Aggressive Tree-Shaking
• Optimized Ivy Compiler – Lower memory usage and faster rebuilds

Summary Table: Angular 20 at a Glance

Conclusion: Why You Should Upgrade to Angular 20

Angular 20 is a leap forward. With the introduction of signals, cleaner templates, and zoneless rendering, Angular evolves into a more modern, reactive, and performant framework.

Who Benefits Most:

• Developers: Simpler, less repetitive code
• Teams: Better DX, toolchain, and maintainability
• Enterprises: Performance, security, scalability

How to Upgrade

Use the Angular CLI:

ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

Follow official update guides for step-by-step instructions and compatibility tips.