What's New in Angular

 Angular has been evolving steadily with several significant updates in recent releases. Here are the key new features and improvements from the most recent versions:

Angular 17 (Late 2023)

• Standalone APIs by default: New projects now use standalone components by default
• Improved developer experience: New application starter with interactive CLI setup
• Built-in control flow: New @if, @for, @switch syntax replacing *ngIf and *ngFor
• Deferred loading: @defer block for lazy loading components
• Server-side rendering improvements: Hydration is now on by default
• Signals API improvements: More reactive programming capabilities
• View transitions API: For smoother page transitions
• New application builder: Based on Vite/esbuild instead of webpack

Angular 16 (May 2023)

• Signals: Introduction of a new reactive primitive
• Server-side rendering: Enhanced hydration support
• Angular CLI: Further improvements with faster builds
• Required inputs: Ability to mark @Input() fields as required
• Self-closing tags: Support for components without content
• Standalone components: Continued development of standalone API
• Reactor: Early preview of new reactivity model

Angular 15 (November 2022)

• Standalone components stable: No longer experimental
• Directive composition API: Reuse directive behavior
• Image directive: Automated image optimization
• NgOptimizedImage: Performance improvements for images
• esbuild support: Faster builds
• Functional router guards: Simplified routing protection

Active Development Areas

Angular is currently focusing on several areas for future releases:

1. Reactivity model enhancements: Expanding signals throughout the framework
2. Performance improvements: Making Angular applications even faster
3. Developer experience: Simplifying API usage and reducing boilerplate
4. Build tooling: Moving away from webpack toward more modern build tools
5. SSR and hydration: Enhanced server-side rendering capabilities

Looking ahead, Angular 18 is expected to bring further stabilization of signals and new features building on the reactive architecture introduced in recent versions.