Angular State Management: Signals vs Simple Properties - Which Should I Use?

As I'm diving deeper into Angular for my Java full-stack journey (see my intro post), I've been exploring different state management approaches, and I keep hitting this question:

When should I use Signals vs traditional component properties?
The Classic Approach: Simple Properties

export class UserComponent {
  userName: string = 'Mohamed';
  userAge: number = 24;

  updateName(newName: string) {
    this.userName = newName; // Simple assignment
  }
}

✅ Pros: Straightforward, familiar, easy to understand
❌ Cons: Change detection can be inefficient with large component trees
The New Kid: Signals (Angular 16+)

import { signal } from '@angular/core';

export class UserComponent {
  userName = signal('Mohamed');
  userAge = signal(24);

  updateName(newName: string) {
    this.userName.set(newName); // Signal update
  }
}

✅ Pros: Fine-grained reactivity, better performance, cleaner derived state
❌ Cons: More verbose syntax, learning curve for existing codebases

My Confusion (and Questions for You!)
I'm currently building a Spring Boot + Angular social network app, and I'm torn on which approach to use for:

User authentication state (logged in user, token, permissions)

Real-time notifications (WebSocket updates)

Form state (post creation, validation)

My questions:

🤔 For experienced Angular devs:

Do you mix both approaches in the same project, or go all-in on Signals?

Are Signals worth adopting for new projects in 2026?

What's your rule of thumb for deciding which to use?

🤔 For those migrating from properties to Signals:

Did you see real performance improvements?

Was the migration painful?

I'd love to hear your real-world experiences and recommendations! Drop your thoughts in the comments 👇
#angular #webdev #javascript #typescript #frontend #discuss