Last updated: 2022-05-23
Angular receives a large number of feature requests, both from inside Google and from the broader open-source community. At the same time, our list of projects contains plenty of maintenance tasks, code refactorings, and potential performance improvements. We bring together representatives from developer relations, product management, and engineering to prioritize this list. As new projects come into the queue, we regularly position them based on relative priority to other projects. As work gets done, projects move up in the queue. The following projects are not associated with a particular Angular version. We will release them on completion, and they will be part of a specific version based on our release schedule, following semantic versioning. For example, features are released in the next minor after they are complete, or the next major if they include breaking changes. ## In progress ### Implement APIs for optional NgModules In the process of making Angular simpler, we are working on introducing APIs that allow developers to initialize applications, instantiate components, and use the router without NgModules. Angular v14 introduces developer preview of the APIs for standalone components, directives, and pipes. In the next few quarters we'll collect feedback from developers and finalize the project making the APIs stable. As the next step we will work on improving use cases such as `TestBed`, Angular elements, etc. ### Improve image performance The [Aurora](https://web.dev/introducing-aurora/) and the Angular teams are working on the implementation of an image directive that aims to improve [Core Web Vitals](https://web.dev/vitals). Currently, the project is in a prototyping phase and the teams are validating the image directive with partners. ### Investigate micro frontend architecture for scalable development processes We conducted a series of 40 interviews to understand the requirements for micro-frontend architecture of the community. We followed up with a broader community survey. As the next step, we'll share analysis of the results publicly. ### Investigate modern bundles To improve development experience by speeding up build times research modern bundles. As part of the project experiment with [esbuild](https://esbuild.github.io) and other open source solutions, compare them with the state-of-the-art tooling in Angular CLI, and report the findings. In Angular v14 we're releasing an [experimental support](https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/pull/22995) for esbuild. Next, the team will focus on validating the new prototype and implementing watch and Sass support. ### Modern CSS The Web ecosystem evolves constantly and we want to reflect the latest modern standards in Angular. In this project we aim to provide guidelines on using modern CSS features in Angular to ensure developers follow best practices for layout, styling, etc. ### Support adding directives to host elements A [long-standing feature request](https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/8785) is to add the ability to add directives to host elements. The feature lets developers augment their own components with additional behaviors without using inheritance. The project requires substantial effort in terms of the definition of APIs, semantics, and implementation. ### Better stack traces The Angular and the Chrome DevTools are working together to enable more readable stack traces for error messages. ### New CDK primitives We are working on new CDK primitives to facilitate creating custom components based on the WAI-ARIA design patterns for [Listbox](https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/#Listbox) and [Combobox](https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/#combobox). Angular v14 introduced stable [menu and dialog primitives](https://material.angular.io/cdk/categories) as part of this project. ### Enhanced Angular Material components by integrating MDC Web [MDC Web](https://material.io/develop/web) is a library created by the Google Material Design team that provides reusable primitives for building Material Design components. The Angular team is incorporating these primitives into Angular Material. Using MDC Web aligns Angular Material more closely with the Material Design specification, expand accessibility, improve component quality, and improve the velocity of our team. ### Angular component accessibility We are evaluating components in Angular Material against accessibility standards such as WCAG and working to fix any issues that arise from this process. ### Documentation refactoring Ensure all existing documentation fits into a consistent set of content types. Update excessive use of tutorial-style documentation into independent topics. We want to ensure the content outside the main tutorials is self-sufficient without being tightly coupled to a series of guides. In Q2 2022, we refactored the [template content](https://github.com/angular/angular/pull/45897). The next steps are to introduce better structure for components and dependency injection. ## Future ### Explore hydration and server-side rendering usability improvements As part of this effort we'll explore the problem space of hydration with server-side rendering, different approaches, and opportunities for Angular. As outcome of this project we'll have validation of the effort as well as a plan for action. ### Revamp performance dashboards to detect regressions We have a set of benchmarks that we run against every code change to ensure Angular aligns with our performance standards. To ensure the runtime of the framework does not regress after a code change, we need to refine some of the existing infrastructure the dashboards step on. ### Leverage full framework capabilities with Zone.js opt-out We are going to design and implement a plan to make Zone.js optional from Angular applications. This way, we simplify the framework, improve debugging, and reduce application bundle size. Additionally, this lets us take advantage of built-in async/await syntax, which currently Zone.js does not support. ### Improved build performance with ngc as a tsc plugin distribution Distributing the Angular compiler as a plugin of the TypeScript compiler will substantially improve build performance for developers and reduce maintenance costs. ### Ergonomic component level code-splitting APIs A common problem with web applications is their slow initial load time. A way to improve it is to apply more granular code-splitting on a component level. To encourage this practice, we will be working on more ergonomic code-splitting APIs. ### Ensure smooth adoption for future RxJS changes (version 8 and beyond) We want to ensure Angular developers are taking advantage of the latest capabilities of RxJS and have a smooth transition to the next major releases of the framework. For this purpose, we will explore and document the scope of the changes in v7 and beyond RxJS, and plan an update strategy. ### Introduce dependency injection debugging APIs To improve the debugging utilities of Angular and Angular DevTools, we'll work on APIs that provide access the dependency injection runtime. As part of the project we'll expose debugging methods that allow us to explore the injector hierarchy and the dependencies across their associated providers. ### Support two-dimensional drag-and-drop As part of this project we'd like to implement mixed orientation support for the Angular CDK drag and drop. This is one of the most highly [requested features](https://github.com/angular/components/issues/13372) in the repository.