PHP 8.4 Released: New Features Every Developer Should Know

PHP 8.4 was officially released in November 2025, bringing a host of new features that make the language more expressive and developer-friendly than ever.

Property Hooks

One of the most anticipated features, property hooks allow you to define get and set behavior directly in property declarations:

class User {
    public string $fullName {
        get => $this->firstName . ' ' . $this->lastName;
        set => [$this->firstName, $this->lastName] = explode(' ', $value, 2);
    }
}

This eliminates the need for boilerplate getter and setter methods in many cases.

Asymmetric Visibility

Properties can now have different visibility for reading and writing:

class BankAccount {
    public private(set) float $balance = 0.0;
}

New Array Functions

PHP 8.4 adds several useful array functions:

• array_find() - Find the first element matching a condition
• array_find_key() - Find the key of matching element
• array_any() - Check if any element matches
• array_all() - Check if all elements match

HTML5 Support in DOM

The new Dom\HTMLDocument class provides proper HTML5 parsing support, a long-awaited improvement for web scraping and manipulation tasks.

Upgrade Considerations

Before upgrading, review the migration guide for deprecated features and breaking changes. Most Laravel and Symfony applications should upgrade smoothly.

PHP continues to evolve as a modern, type-safe language suitable for enterprise applications.