React 18: The New Features You Need to Know About

4 min readApr 8, 2023

Discover How React 18’s New Features Can Improve Your Web Application Development Experience

React 18 is finally here, and it comes with a host of exciting new features that promise to improve the developer experience and make it easier to build complex, interactive web applications. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most important new features in React 18 and how they can benefit your projects.

1. Automatic batching of state updates

One of the most significant improvements in React 18 is the automatic batching of state updates. In previous versions of React, developers had to manually batch state updates to improve performance. With automatic batching, React will handle state updates more efficiently, resulting in better performance and smoother user experiences.

e.g- Automatic batching of state updates: Previously, developers had to manually batch state updates to improve performance, like this:

this.setState({ name: 'John' }, () => {
  this.setState({ age: 25 });
});

With React 18’s automatic batching, developers don’t need to do this manually anymore. React will automatically batch multiple state updates that occur within the same cycle, which results in better performance.

ref — https://reactjs.org/docs/concurrent-mode-adoption.html#automatic-batching-of-state-updates

2. New suspense API

React 18 introduces a new suspense API that makes it easier to handle async rendering and data fetching. This new API allows developers to display a fallback UI while the data is being fetched, giving users a more seamless experience.

e.g. — The new suspense API in React 18 allows developers to handle async rendering and data fetching more easily. Here’s an example of how it can be used:

import { lazy, Suspense } from 'react';

const LazyComponent = lazy(() => import('./LazyComponent'));

function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
        <LazyComponent />
      </Suspense>
    </div>
  );
}

In this example, the lazy function is used to load the LazyComponent asynchronously, while the Suspense component is used to display a fallback UI while the component is being loaded.

ref — https://github.com/reactjs/rfcs/blob/main/text/0213-suspense-in-react-18.md

3. Server components

Another exciting new feature in React 18 is server components, which enable rendering components on the server. This feature will make it easier to build universal applications that can run on both the client and the server. With server components, developers can also improve the performance of their applications by pre-rendering content on the server.

e.g. — Here’s an example of how server components can be used:

function MyApp() {
  return (
    <ServerComponent
      component={<MyComponent />}
      props={{ name: 'John' }}
    />
  );
}

In this example, the ServerComponent is used to render the MyComponent component on the server, with the name prop set to 'John'.

ref — https://zh-hans.reactjs.org/blog/2022/03/29/react-v18

4. Improved error handling

React 18 comes with improved error-handling capabilities that make it easier to debug and troubleshoot errors. The new error handling API provides more detailed error messages, making it easier for developers to pinpoint the cause of the issue and fix it quickly.

e.g. — Here’s an example of how an error message might look with the new error-handling API:

Error: Invalid prop `name` of type `number` supplied to `MyComponent`, expected `string`.

In this example, the error message clearly identifies that an invalid prop of type number was supplied to the name prop of the MyComponent component, when it was expecting a string.

5. Improved developer tools

Finally, React 18 comes with several improvements to developer tools, including a new profiler that makes it easier to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize your application’s performance.

e.g. — Here’s an example of how the profiler might look:

┌─────────┬──────────┬─────────┐
│ (index) │   Name   │  Time   │
├─────────┼──────────┼─────────┤
│    0    │  render  │ 34.20ms │
│    1    │   App    │ 34.20ms │
└─────────┴──────────┴─────────┘

In this example, the profiler shows the time spent rendering the App component and its children, which can help identify areas of the application that need to be optimized for better performance.

ref — https://zh-hans.reactjs.org/blog/2022/03/29/react-v18, GPT-4, etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion, React 18 introduces a host of new features that promise to make it easier and more efficient to build complex web applications. Whether you’re a seasoned React developer or just starting out, these new features are definitely worth exploring. By taking advantage of the automatic batching of state updates, the new suspense API, server components, improved error handling, and developer tools, you can build better applications faster and with less hassle.

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