We recognize that you need stability from the Angular framework. Stability ensures that reusable components and libraries, tutorials, tools, and learned practices don't become obsolete unexpectedly. Stability is essential for the ecosystem around Angular to thrive.
We also share with you the need for Angular to keep evolving. We strive to ensure that the foundation on top of which you are building is continuously improving and enabling you to stay up-to-date with the rest of the web ecosystem and your user needs.
This document contains the practices that we follow to provide you with a leading-edge application development platform, balanced with stability. We strive to ensure that future changes are always introduced in a predictable way. We want everyone who depends on Angular to know when and how new features are added, and to be well-prepared when obsolete ones are removed.
The practices described in this document apply to Angular 2.0 and later. If you are currently using AngularJS, see Upgrading from AngularJS. AngularJS is the name for all v1.x versions of Angular.
Angular version numbers indicate the level of changes that are introduced by the release. This use of semantic versioning helps you understand the potential impact of updating to a new version.
Angular version numbers have three parts: major.minor.patch
. For example, version 7.2.11 indicates major version 7, minor version 2, and patch level 11.
The version number is incremented based on the level of change included in the release.
Note: As of Angular version 7, the major versions of Angular core and the CLI are aligned. This means that in order to use the CLI as you develop an Angular app, the version of
@angular/core
and the CLI need to be the same.
In alignment with the preceding versioning scheme as described, we commit to support the following update paths:
See Keeping Up-to-Date for more information about updating your Angular projects to the most recent version.
We let you preview what's coming by providing "Next" and Release Candidates (rc
) pre-releases for each major and minor release:
Next: The release that is under active development and testing. The next release is indicated by a release tag appended with the -next
identifier, such as 8.1.0-next.0
.
Release candidate: A release that is feature complete and in final testing. A release candidate is indicated by a release tag appended with the -rc
identifier, such as version 8.1.0-rc.0
.
The latest next
or rc
pre-release version of the documentation is available at next.angular.io.
We work toward a regular schedule of releases, so that you can plan and coordinate your updates with the continuing evolution of Angular.
Dates are offered as general guidance and are subject to change.
In general, expect the following release cycle:
A major release every 6 months
1-3 minor releases for each major release
A patch release and pre-release (next
or rc
) build almost every week
This cadence of releases gives eager developers access to new features as soon as they are fully developed and pass through our code review and integration testing processes, while maintaining the stability and reliability of the platform for production users that prefer to receive features after they have been validated by Google and other developers that use the pre-release builds.
Dates are offered as general guidance and are subject to change.
All major releases are typically supported for 18 months.
6 months of active support, during which regularly-scheduled updates and patches are released.
12 months of long-term support (LTS), during which only critical fixes and security patches are released.
The following table provides the status for Angular versions under support.
Version | Status | Released | Active Ends | LTS Ends |
---|---|---|---|---|
^12.0.0 | Active | May 12, 2021 | Nov 12, 2021 | Nov 12, 2022 |
^11.0.0 | LTS | Nov 11, 2020 | May 11, 2021 | May 11, 2022 |
^10.0.0 | LTS | Jun 24, 2020 | Dec 24, 2020 | Dec 24, 2021 |
Angular versions v4, v5, v6, v7, v8, and v9 are no longer under support.
As a general rule, a fix is considered for an LTS version if it resolves one of:
Sometimes "breaking changes", such as the removal of support for select APIs and features, are necessary to innovate and stay current with new best practices, changing dependencies, or changes in the (web) platform itself.
To make these transitions as straightforward as possible, we make these commitments to you:
We work hard to minimize the number of breaking changes and to provide migration tools when possible.
We follow the deprecation policy described here, so you have time to update your applications to the latest APIs and best practices.
To help ensure that you have sufficient time and a clear path to update, this is our deprecation policy:
Angular is a collection of many packages, sub-projects, and tools. To prevent accidental use of private APIs—and so that you can clearly understand what is covered by the practices described here—we document what is and is not considered our public API surface. For details, see Supported Public API Surface of Angular.
Any changes to the public API surface are done using the versioning, support, and depreciation policies previously described.
Angular Labs is an initiative to cultivate new features and iterate on them quickly. Angular Labs provides a safe place for exploration and experimentation by the Angular team.
Angular Labs projects are not ready for production use, and no commitment is made to bring them to production. The policies and practices that are described in this document do not apply to Angular Labs projects.
© 2010–2021 Google, Inc.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
https://v12.angular.io/guide/releases