The Next.js team has pushed out version 15.4 and while it might not be a huge update, it makes vital improvements to things like Turbopack.
Developers that have tried the –turbopack flag may have seen the speed boosts, but maybe ran into a few quirks that made them hesitant to use it for anything serious. Turbopack now passes every single one of the Next.js team’s 8,298 integration tests for production builds.
To back it up, they’re now using Turbopack to run Vercel.com. The adoption of Turbopack for the main commercial Vercel website shows high confidence in production readiness. If you tried Turbopack before and stepped away, now is a good time to give it another look.
But as solid as this 15.4 update is for things like Turbopack, the biggest stuff will be coming in the Next.js 16 release later this summer. It looks like they’re taking all the recent experimental features and weaving them into a more cohesive, powerful whole.
First up, they’re tidying up their whole caching strategy. Remember all those different flags and concepts like Dynamic IO and Partial Prerendering? It could get a bit confusing. Soon, they’ll all be unified under a single beta feature called ‘Cache Components’. This is fantastic news. It means a clearer, more streamlined way to make apps faster without having to juggle multiple experimental APIs.
Navigation in the App Router is also getting a serious upgrade. The Next.js team are talking about smarter prefetching and better cache handling, which in plain English means our apps should feel snappier and use less data when users click around.
And for those moments when you’re staring at your screen wondering why something isn’t working, the debugging experience is getting some love. They’re adding better tools to inspect your routes and even an experimental feature to send browser logs straight to your terminal. This could be a lifesaver for tracking down those tricky client-side issues.
Of course, with a major new version comes a bit of housekeeping. The main thing to be aware of is that AMP support is being officially retired with Next.js 16.
This all points to a framework that continues to mature. Next.js 15.4 gives us the stability we need right now, especially with Turbopack, while the vision for version 16 shows a clear path towards a more powerful and developer-friendly future.
(Photo by Haithem Ferdi)
See also: Why is 40-year-old programming language Ada hot again?
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