layout: post title: "⚠️ Important Angular 20 Changes You Can’t Ignore" image: "images/content/angular.jpg" excerpt: "Angular 20 introduces major deprecations including ngIf, HammerJS, and platform-browser-dynamic. Learn what’s changing, what to use instead, and how to migrate smoothly before it breaks your app." tags : [angular, migration, deprecations] categories: [angular]

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💥 What Angular 20 Removes And How to Adapt Fast?

Angular 20 introduces major deprecations that impact how developers structure and maintain their apps. From classic directives like *ngIf to gesture libraries like HammerJS, several long-standing tools are being replaced. This guide walks you through what's deprecated, what to use instead, and how to migrate cleanly — so you can avoid bugs, performance issues, or broken builds.

Angular 20 Deprecations: What You Need to Know

Angular 20 comes with crucial updates that every developer should understand before migrating. In this release, Angular deprecates several core features and modules that have been around for years. To avoid breaking changes, migration errors, or slowdowns, this guide will explain what’s deprecated, what alternatives to use, and how to transition smoothly.

Let’s dive in.

🔍 What’s Deprecated in Angular 20? (Quick Breakdown)

Angular 20’s focus is to eliminate legacy patterns and offer a more modern, efficient, and developer-friendly framework. Below is a quick overview of the biggest deprecations you should be aware of:

1. Structural Directives (*ngIf, *ngFor, *ngSwitch)

Angular has deprecated traditional structural directives that start with an asterisk *, including *ngIf, *ngFor, and *ngSwitch. These directives have been at the core of Angular templates for years. Now, they are being replaced by a new control flow syntax.

✨ New Syntax:
@if (condition) { ... }
@for (item of items) { ... }
@switch (expression) { @case(...) {} }

This modern syntax improves readability, tooling, and debugging. You won’t need to think about the hidden <ng-template> wrappers that came with *ngIf or *ngFor. Instead, this block-style structure resembles native JavaScript or TypeScript logic, making templates more intuitive.

🔁 Migration Example:
<!-- Old syntax -->
<div *ngIf="isLoggedIn">Welcome!</div>

<!-- New syntax -->
@if (isLoggedIn) {
  <div>Welcome!</div>
}

2. platform-browser-dynamic Module

Angular is now moving away from using the @angular/platform-browser-dynamic module. Previously, this module was used to bootstrap apps with Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation.

Now, Angular promotes using @angular/platform-browser instead, aligning better with standalone components and the future direction of Angular builds.

🔁 Migration Instructions:

Replace:

import { platformBrowserDynamic } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
platformBrowserDynamic().bootstrapModule(AppModule);

With:

import { platformBrowser } from '@angular/platform-browser';
platformBrowser().bootstrapApplication(AppComponent);

This reflects Angular’s goal to simplify and modernize app bootstrapping.

3. HammerJS Gesture Support

Angular has also deprecated built-in support for HammerJS, a library previously used to detect gestures like swipe, pinch, and pan.

🔄 What to Use Instead:

You should now rely on:

🧠 Migration Tip:

If you're still using HammerJS, begin replacing it with native gestures or switch to modern gesture libraries outside Angular’s ecosystem. These alternatives are more flexible and actively maintained.

4. SSR Testing Module (platform-server/testing)

The @angular/platform-server/testing module has been deprecated. This module was used for unit testing features related to server-side rendering (SSR).

✅ What to Do Instead:

Use end-to-end (E2E) testing tools like:

These tools provide better insight into real-world SSR behavior, such as first contentful paint, SEO visibility, and actual user interaction.

💡 Migration Tip:

Replace SSR unit tests with browser-based E2E tests that simulate user interaction. These offer far better confidence in your SSR configuration than isolated unit tests.

🧠 Why These Deprecations Matter

These changes might seem drastic, but they’re designed to:

✅ Enhance performance ✅ Eliminate outdated dependencies ✅ Simplify template and bootstrapping logic ✅ Embrace a standalone-first structure ✅ Improve compatibility with modern tooling and testing strategies

Angular 20 is evolving — and these updates are meant to support a more modern development workflow.

✅ How to Migrate Smoothly

Here are the steps you should take right away to prepare for Angular 20:

  1. Replace structural directives like *ngIf, *ngFor, and *ngSwitch with @if, @for, and @switch. These will remain available temporarily, but will be removed in future versions.
  2. Update your app bootstrapping: Move from platformBrowserDynamic() to platformBrowser().
  3. Audit gesture-related code: Identify HammerJS dependencies and switch to native gesture APIs or modern gesture libraries.
  4. Revise SSR tests: Use Playwright or Cypress to test SSR output in real-world browser contexts.
  5. Leverage Angular CLI tools: Run ng update to apply official migrations where available.

🚀 Final Thoughts

Angular 20 pushes developers toward a cleaner, faster, and more maintainable future. While these deprecations may require some initial work, the long-term benefits are significant — especially for performance and architecture clarity.

If you’re already working with standalone components, strict typing, or reactive patterns, these changes won’t feel unfamiliar. In fact, they’ll likely streamline your workflow even more.

Are you ready to migrate to Angular 20? Which of these updates are you most excited — or concerned — about?

👇 Drop your thoughts in the comments!