Next JS App Router: The Basics

When the new app router came out in Next JS, I updated my website to use it. I wanted to understand first-hand how it works. I wanted to understand the changes and whether they are worth the effort.
I’ve already talked about React Server Components in theory. Here I’d like to go through some practical lessons I learnt while coding.
For now, I’m going to focus on the basics: how the app router works.
There is much more to cover, such as SEO features, translation, and managing content. I’m splitting that up because I’d like to keep this short, but I will be covering that later.
So here is how the app router differs from the page directory router. Let’s dive in.
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Want to go into further depth? Head to kodaps.dev/