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 apps to the latest APIs and best practices.
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](guide/releases#deprecation-practices "Angular Release Practices: Deprecation practices").
For step-by-step instructions on how to update to the latest Angular release, use the interactive update guide at [update.angular.io](https://update.angular.io).
To help you future-proof your apps, 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.
Tip: In the [API reference section](api) of this doc site, deprecated APIs are indicated by ~~strikethrough.~~ You can filter the API list by [**Status: deprecated**](api?status=deprecated).
| [`defineInjectable`](api/core/defineInjectable) | `ɵɵdefineInjectable` | v8 | Used only in generated code. No source code should depend on this API. |
| [`ViewEncapsulation.Native`](api/core/ViewEncapsulation#Native) | [`ViewEncapsulation.ShadowDom`](api/core/ViewEncapsulation#ShadowDom) | v6 | Use the native encapsulation mechanism of the renderer. See [view.ts](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/3e992e18ebf51d6036818f26c3d77b52d3ec48eb/packages/core/src/metadata/view.ts#L32).
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](#deprecated-apis) section above. It also includes deprecated API usage scenarios or API combinations, to augment the information above.
Angular previously has supported an integration with the Web Tracing Framework (WTF) for performance testing of Angular applications. This integration has not been maintained and likely does not work for the majority of Angular applications today. As a result, we are deprecating the integration in Angular version 8.
The shadow-dom-piercing descendant combinator is deprecated and support is being [removed from major browsers and tools](https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/10/remove-shadow-piercing). As such, in v4 we deprecated support in Angular for all 3 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](guide/component-styles#deprecated-deep--and-ng-deep "Component Styles guide, Deprecated deep and ngdeep")
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/angular-compiler-options#enablelegacytemplate) guide.
For more information, see the usage notes for [`FormControlDirective`](api/forms/FormControlDirective#use-with-ngmodel) and [`FormControlName`](api/forms/FormControlName#use-with-ngmodel).
In v5, Angular replaced the `ReflectiveInjector` with the `StaticInjector`. The injector no longer requires the Reflect polyfill, reducing application size for most developers.
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`](api/router/LoadChildren) route specification was deprecated, in favor of new syntax that uses `import()` syntax.
**Version 8 update**: When you update to version 8, the [`ng update`](cli/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](https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/blob/a491b09800b493fe01301387fa9a025f7c7d4808/packages/ngtools/webpack/src/transformers/import_factory.ts#L104-L113). These restrictions will be relaxed with the release of Ivy since it'll no longer use `NgFactories`.
### ActivatedRoute params and queryParams properties
[ActivatedRoute](api/router/ActivatedRoute) contains two [properties](api/router/ActivatedRoute#properties) that are less capable than their replacements and may be deprecated in a future Angular version.
### 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](https://github.com/rbuckton/reflect-metadata) APIs.
The need for this polyfill was removed in Angular version 8.0 ([see #14473](https://github.com/angular/angular-cli/pull/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.
However, in practice, Angular simply 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.
[Domino](https://github.com/fgnass/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.
{@a wtf-apis}
### `wtfStartTimeRange` and all `wtf*` APIs
All of the `wtf*` APIs are deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
| [`@angular/http`](https://v7.angular.io/api/http) | All exports | [`@angular/common/http`](api/common/http) | See [below](#http). |
[`@angular/http/testing`](https://v7.angular.io/api/http/testing) | All exports | [`@angular/common/http/testing`](api/common/http/testing) | See [below](#http). |
| `@angular/platform-browser` | [`DOCUMENT`](https://v7.angular.io/api/platform-browser/DOCUMENT) | [`DOCUMENT` in `@angular/common`](api/common/DOCUMENT) | Updating to version 8 with [`ng update`](cli/update) changes this automatically. |
| `@angular/service-worker` | `versionedFiles` | `files` | In the service worker configuration file `ngsw-config.json`, replace `versionedFiles` with `files`. See [Service Worker Configuration](guide/service-worker-config#assetgroups). |
* Replace `HttpModule` with [`HttpClientModule`](api/common/http/HttpClientModule) (from [`@angular/common/http`](api/common/http)) in each of your modules.
* Replace the `Http` service with the [`HttpClient`](api/common/http/HttpClient) service.
