Deprecated APIs and features

Angular strives to balance innovation and stability. Sometimes, APIs and features become obsolete and need to be removed or replaced so that Angular can stay current with new best practices, changing dependencies, or changes in the (web) platform itself.

To make these transitions as easy as possible, we deprecate APIs and features for a period of time before removing them. This gives you time to update your applications to the latest APIs and best practices.

This guide contains a summary of all Angular APIs and features that are currently deprecated.

Features and APIs that were deprecated in v6 or earlier are candidates for removal in version 9 or any later major version. For information about Angular's deprecation and removal practices, see Angular Release Practices.

For step-by-step instructions on how to update to the latest Angular release, use the interactive update guide at update.angular.io.

Index

To help you future-proof your projects, the following table lists all deprecated APIs and features, organized by the release in which they are candidates for removal. Each item is linked to the section later in this guide that describes the deprecation reason and replacement options.

Area	API or Feature	May be removed in
@angular/common	ReflectiveInjector	v11
@angular/common	CurrencyPipe - DEFAULT_CURRENCY_CODE	v11
@angular/common/http	XhrFactory	v15
@angular/core	DefaultIterableDiffer	v11
@angular/core	ReflectiveKey	v11
@angular/core	RenderComponentType	v11
@angular/core	WrappedValue	v12
@angular/forms	ngModel with reactive forms	v11
@angular/upgrade	@angular/upgrade	v11
@angular/upgrade	getAngularLib	v11
@angular/upgrade	setAngularLib	v11
template syntax	<template>	v11
polyfills	reflect-metadata	v11
npm package format	esm5 and fesm5 entry-points in @angular/* npm packages	v11
@angular/core	defineInjectable	v11
@angular/core	entryComponents	v11
@angular/core	ANALYZE_FOR_ENTRY_COMPONENTS	v11
@angular/router	loadChildren string syntax	v11
@angular/core/testing	TestBed.get	v12
@angular/core/testing	async	v12
@angular/forms	FormBuilder.group legacy options parameter	v14
@angular/router	ActivatedRoute params and queryParams properties	unspecified
template syntax	/deep/, >>>, and ::ng-deep	unspecified

For information about Angular CDK and Angular Material deprecations, see the changelog.

Deprecated APIs

This section contains a complete list all of the currently-deprecated APIs, with details to help you plan your migration to a replacement.

TIP: In the API reference section of this site, deprecated APIs are indicated by strikethrough. You can filter the API list by Status: deprecated.

@angular/common

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
CurrencyPipe - DEFAULT_CURRENCY_CODE	{provide: DEFAULT_CURRENCY_CODE, useValue: 'USD'}	v9	From v11 the default code will be extracted from the locale data given by LOCALE_ID, rather than USD.

@angular/common/http

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
XhrFactory	XhrFactory in @angular/common	v12	The XhrFactory has moved from @angular/common/http to @angular/common.

@angular/core

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
DefaultIterableDiffer	n/a	v4	Not part of public API.
ReflectiveInjector	Injector.create()	v5	See ReflectiveInjector
ReflectiveKey	none	v5	none
defineInjectable	ɵɵdefineInjectable	v8	Used only in generated code. No source code should depend on this API.
entryComponents	none	v9	See entryComponents
ANALYZE_FOR_ENTRY_COMPONENTS	none	v9	See ANALYZE_FOR_ENTRY_COMPONENTS
WrappedValue	none	v10	See removing WrappedValue
async	waitForAsync	v11	The async function from @angular/core/testing has been renamed to waitForAsync in order to avoid confusion with the native JavaScript async syntax. The existing function is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
ViewChildren.emitDistinctChangesOnly / ContentChildren.emitDistinctChangesOnly	none (was part of issue #40091)		This is a temporary flag introduced as part of bugfix of issue #40091 and will be removed.

@angular/core/testing

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
TestBed.get	TestBed.inject	v9	Same behavior, but type safe.
async	waitForAsync	v10	Same behavior, but rename to avoid confusion.

@angular/forms

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
ngModel with reactive forms	FormControlDirective	v6	none
FormBuilder.group legacy options parameter	AbstractControlOptions parameter value	v11	none

@angular/upgrade

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
All entry points	@angular/upgrade/static	v5	See Upgrading from AngularJS.

@angular/upgrade/static

API	Replacement	Deprecation announced	Notes
getAngularLib	getAngularJSGlobal	v5	See Upgrading from AngularJS.
setAngularLib	setAngularJSGlobal	v5	See Upgrading from AngularJS.

Deprecated features

This section lists all of the currently-deprecated features, which includes template syntax, configuration options, and any other deprecations not listed in the Deprecated APIs section above. It also includes deprecated API usage scenarios or API combinations, to augment the information above.

Bazel builder and schematics

Bazel builder and schematics were introduced in Angular Labs to let users try out Bazel without having to manage Bazel version and BUILD files. This feature has been deprecated. For more information, please refer to the migration doc.

Web Tracing Framework integration

Angular previously supported an integration with the Web Tracing Framework (WTF) for performance testing of Angular applications. This integration has not been maintained and is now defunct. As a result, the integration was deprecated in Angular version 8, and due to no evidence of any existing usage, removed in version 9.

/deep/, >>>, and ::ng-deep component style selectors

The shadow-dom-piercing descendant combinator is deprecated and support is being removed from major browsers and tools. As such, in v4 we deprecated support in Angular for all three of /deep/, >>>, and ::ng-deep. Until removal, ::ng-deep is preferred for broader compatibility with the tools.

For more information, see /deep/, >>>, and ::ng-deep in the Component Styles guide.

<template> tag

The <template> tag was deprecated in v4 to avoid colliding with the DOM's element of the same name (such as when using web components). Use <ng-template> instead. For more information, see the Ahead-of-Time Compilation guide.

ngModel with reactive forms

Support for using the ngModel input property and ngModelChange event with reactive form directives has been deprecated in Angular v6 and will be removed in a future version of Angular.

Now deprecated:

<input [formControl]="control" [(ngModel)]="value">

this.value = 'some value';

This support was deprecated for several reasons. First, developers found this pattern confusing. It seems like the actual ngModel directive is being used, but in fact it's an input/output property named ngModel on the reactive form directive that approximates some, but not all, of the directive's behavior. It allows getting and setting a value and intercepting value events, but some of ngModel's other features, such as delaying updates withngModelOptions or exporting the directive, don't work.

In addition, this pattern mixes template-driven and reactive forms strategies, which prevents taking advantage of the full benefits of either strategy. Setting the value in the template violates the template-agnostic principles behind reactive forms, whereas adding a FormControl/FormGroup layer in the class removes the convenience of defining forms in the template.

To update your code before support is removed, you'll want to decide whether to stick with reactive form directives (and get/set values using reactive forms patterns) or switch to template-driven directives.

After (choice 1 - use reactive forms):

<input [formControl]="control">

this.control.setValue('some value');

After (choice 2 - use template-driven forms):

<input [(ngModel)]="value">

this.value = 'some value';

By default, when you use this pattern, you will see a deprecation warning once in dev mode. You can choose to silence this warning by configuring ReactiveFormsModule at import time:

imports: [
  ReactiveFormsModule.withConfig({warnOnNgModelWithFormControl: 'never'})
],

Alternatively, you can choose to surface a separate warning for each instance of this pattern with a configuration value of "always". This may help to track down where in the code the pattern is being used as the code is being updated.

ReflectiveInjector

In v5, Angular replaced the ReflectiveInjector with the StaticInjector. The injector no longer requires the Reflect polyfill, reducing application size for most developers.

Before:

ReflectiveInjector.resolveAndCreate(providers);

After:

Injector.create({providers});

loadChildren string syntax

When Angular first introduced lazy routes, there wasn't browser support for dynamically loading additional JavaScript. Angular created our own scheme using the syntax loadChildren: './lazy/lazy.module#LazyModule' and built tooling to support it. Now that ECMAScript dynamic import is supported in many browsers, Angular is moving toward this new syntax.

In version 8, the string syntax for the loadChildren route specification was deprecated, in favor of new syntax that uses import() syntax.

Before:

const routes: Routes = [{
    path: 'lazy',
    // The following string syntax for loadChildren is deprecated
    loadChildren: './lazy/lazy.module#LazyModule',
  }];

After:

const routes: Routes = [{
    path: 'lazy',
    // The new import() syntax
    loadChildren: () => import('./lazy/lazy.module').then(m => m.LazyModule)
  }];

Version 8 update: When you update to version 8, the ng update command performs the transformation automatically. Prior to version 7, the import() syntax only works in JIT mode (with view engine).

Declaration syntax: It's important to follow the route declaration syntax loadChildren: () => import('...').then(m => m.ModuleName) to allow ngc to discover the lazy-loaded module and the associated NgModule. You can find the complete list of allowed syntax constructs here. These restrictions will be relaxed with the release of Ivy since it'll no longer use NgFactories.

ActivatedRoute params and queryParams properties

ActivatedRoute contains two properties that are less capable than their replacements and may be deprecated in a future Angular version.

Property	Replacement
params	paramMap
queryParams	queryParamMap

For more information see the Getting route information section of the Router guide.

Dependency on a reflect-metadata polyfill in JIT mode

Angular applications, and specifically applications that relied on the JIT compiler, used to require a polyfill for the reflect-metadata APIs.

The need for this polyfill was removed in Angular version 8.0 (see #14473), rendering the presence of the poylfill in most Angular applications unnecessary. Because the polyfill can be depended on by 3rd-party libraries, instead of removing it from all Angular projects, we are deprecating the requirement for this polyfill as of version 8.0. This should give library authors and application developers sufficient time to evaluate if they need the polyfill, and perform any refactoring necessary to remove the dependency on it.

In a typical Angular project, the polyfill is not used in production builds, so removing it should not impact production applications. The goal behind this removal is overall simplification of the build setup and decrease in the number of external dependencies.

@ViewChild() / @ContentChild() static resolution as the default

See the dedicated migration guide for static queries.

@ContentChild() / @Input() used together

The following pattern is deprecated:

@Input() @ContentChild(TemplateRef) tpldeprecated !: TemplateRef<any>;

Rather than using this pattern, separate the two decorators into their own properties and add fallback logic as in the following example:

@Input() tpl !: TemplateRef<any>;
@ContentChild(TemplateRef) inlineTemplate !: TemplateRef<any>;

Cannot assign to template variables

In the following example, the two-way binding means that optionName should be written when the valueChange event fires.

<option *ngFor="let optionName of options" [(value)]="optionName"></option>

However, in practice, Angular ignores two-way bindings to template variables. Starting in version 8, attempting to write to template variables is deprecated. In a future version, we will throw to indicate that the write is not supported.

<option *ngFor="let optionName of options" [value]="optionName"></option>

Binding to innerText in platform-server

Domino, which is used in server-side rendering, doesn't support innerText, so in platform-server's "domino adapter", there was special code to fall back to textContent if you tried to bind to innerText.

These two properties have subtle differences, so switching to textContent under the hood can be surprising to users. For this reason, we are deprecating this behavior. Going forward, users should explicitly bind to textContent when using Domino.

wtfStartTimeRange and all wtf* APIs

All of the wtf* APIs are deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

entryComponents and ANALYZE_FOR_ENTRY_COMPONENTS no longer required

Previously, the entryComponents array in the NgModule definition was used to tell the compiler which components would be created and inserted dynamically. With Ivy, this isn't a requirement anymore and the entryComponents array can be removed from existing module declarations. The same applies to the ANALYZE_FOR_ENTRY_COMPONENTS injection token.

NOTE: You may still need to keep these if building a library that will be consumed by a View Engine application.

ModuleWithProviders type without a generic

Some Angular libraries, such as @angular/router and @ngrx/store, implement APIs that return a type called ModuleWithProviders (typically using a method named forRoot()). This type represents an NgModule along with additional providers. Angular version 9 deprecates use of ModuleWithProviders without an explicitly generic type, where the generic type refers to the type of the NgModule. In a future version of Angular, the generic will no longer be optional.

If you're using the CLI, ng update should migrate your code automatically. If you're not using the CLI, you can add any missing generic types to your application manually. For example:

Before

@NgModule({
/* ... */
})
export class MyModule {
  static forRoot(config: SomeConfig): ModuleWithProviders {
    return {
      ngModule: SomeModule,
      providers: [
        {provide: SomeConfig, useValue: config}
      ]
    };
  }
}

After:

@NgModule({
/* ... */
})
export class MyModule {
  static forRoot(config: SomeConfig): ModuleWithProviders<SomeModule> {
    return {
      ngModule: SomeModule,
      providers: [
        {provide: SomeConfig, useValue: config}
      ]
    };
  }
}

WrappedValue

The purpose of WrappedValue is to allow the same object instance to be treated as different for the purposes of change detection. It is commonly used with the async pipe in the case where the Observable produces the same instance of the value.

Given that this use case is relatively rare and special handling impacts application performance, we have deprecated it in v10. No replacement is planned for this deprecation.

If you rely on the behavior that the same object instance should cause change detection, you have two options:

• Clone the resulting value so that it has a new identity.
• Explicitly call ChangeDetectorRef.detectChanges() to force the update.

Internet Explorer 11

Angular support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is deprecated and will be removed in Angular v13. Ending IE11 support allows Angular to take advantage of web platform APIs present only in evergreen browsers, resulting in better APIs for developers and more capabilities for application users. An additional motivation behind this removal is the drop in global usage of IE11 to just ~1% (as of March 2021). For full rationale and discussion behind this deprecation see RFC: Internet Explorer 11 support deprecation and removal.

Note: IE11 will be supported in Angular v12 LTS releases through November 2022.

Deprecated CLI APIs and Options

This section contains a complete list all of the currently deprecated CLI flags.

@angular-devkit/build-angular

API/Option	May be removed in	Notes
extractCss	v13	No longer required to disable CSS extraction during development.
i18nFormat	v12	Format is now automatically detected.
i18nLocale	v12	New localization option in version 9 and later.
hmrWarning	v13	No longer has an effect.
servePathDefaultWarning	v13	No longer has an effect.

@schematics/angular

API/Option	May be removed in	Notes
lintFix	v12	Deprecated as part of TSLint deprecation.

Removed APIs

The following APIs have been removed starting with version 11.0.0*:

Package	API	Replacement	Notes
@angular/router	preserveQueryParams	queryParamsHandling

* To see APIs removed in version 10, check out this guide on the version 10 docs site.

esm5 and fesm5 code formats in @angular/* npm packages

As of Angular v8, the CLI primarily consumes the fesm2015 variant of the code distributed as part of @angular/* npm packages. This renders the esm5 and fesm5 distributions obsolete and unnecessary, adding bloat to the package size and slowing down npm installations.

This removal has no impact on CLI users, unless they modified their build configuration to explicitly consume these code distributions.

Any application still relying on the esm5 and fesm5 as the input to its build system will need to ensure that the build pipeline is capable of accepting JavaScript code conforming to ECMAScript 2015 (ES2015) language specification.

Note that this change doesn't make existing libraries distributed in this format incompatible with the Angular CLI. The CLI will fall back and consume libraries in less desirable formats if others are not available. However, we do recommend that libraries ship their code in ES2015 format in order to make builds faster and build output smaller.

In practical terms, the package.json of all @angular packages has changed in the following way:

Before:

{
    "name": "@angular/core",
    "version": "9.0.0",
    "main": "./bundles/core.umd.js",
    "module": "./fesm5/core.js",
    "es2015": "./fesm2015/core.js",
    "esm5": "./esm5/core.js",
    "esm2015": "./esm2015/core.js",
    "fesm5": "./fesm5/core.js",
    "fesm2015": "./fesm2015/core.js"
    // ...
}

After:

{
    "name": "@angular/core",
    "version": "10.0.0",
    "main": "./bundles/core.umd.js",
    "module": "./fesm2015/core.js",
    "es2015": "./fesm2015/core.js",
    "esm2015": "./esm2015/core.js",
    "fesm2015": "./fesm2015/core.js",
    // ...
}

For more information about the npm package format, see the Angular Package Format spec.

Style Sanitization for [style] and [style.prop] bindings

Angular used to sanitize [style] and [style.prop] bindings to prevent malicious code from being inserted through javascript: expressions in CSS url() entries. However, most modern browsers no longer support the usage of these expressions, so sanitization was only maintained for the sake of IE 6 and 7. Given that Angular does not support either IE 6 or 7 and sanitization has a performance cost, we will no longer sanitize style bindings as of version 10 of Angular.