The biggest changes coming to Rust...

Summary

The video surveys major Rust language improvements discussed in a 2026 talk by Rust designer and maintainer Josh Triplett. It separates longer-term proposals from features nearing stable release.

Longer-term language features

• View types and partial borrowing: Rust can reject code that mutably borrows two separate fields of the same struct when one field is borrowed directly and the whole struct is passed to a function. A workaround is to pass each field separately, but that can make refactoring awkward and require extra parameters. View types aim to let a function accept a struct while specifying which fields it may access or mutate. The syntax is still undecided; current work focuses on the type-system design. The feature has been accepted, with work targeted for completion by April 1, 2027, but no stabilization date has been announced.
• Pattern types: These would let developers add constraints to types, such as restricting a u32 to a particular range, so the type system can enforce more program invariants. An experimental version is available in nightly Rust behind a feature flag.
• Linear (or “unforgettable”) types: These would prevent values from being implicitly dropped, requiring developers to handle them explicitly. For example, a database transaction could require an explicit commit or abort, leaving that choice to the developer rather than making it in a Drop implementation.

Features nearing stable Rust

• Polonius: A proposed next iteration of the borrow checker, intended to accept more valid code and reduce the need to work around borrow-checker limitations. It is available on nightly, with stabilization planned in the near term, according to the video.
• Next-generation trait solver: Also available on nightly, it is said to fix hundreds of long-standing bugs, enable features such as type_alias_impl_trait, and improve compile times for crates that make heavy use of traits.

The video’s overall assessment is that Rust is likely to keep evolving by incorporating lessons from newer languages and research rather than being replaced.

Guides and resources mentioned

• A Rust project goals page describes the view-types proposal and its status.
• Josh Triplett’s talk, “Rust features in the future,” is cited as the source for the overview.
• Evan Ovadia’s talk on linear types is recommended for a deeper dive.
• The channel also promotes its Rust Live Accelerator mentorship program and a Rust developer roadmap.

Main speakers and sources

• Video presenter: An unnamed host from Let’s Get Rusty.
• Josh Triplett: Rust designer and maintainer whose 2026 talk is discussed.
• Evan Ovadia: Speaker recommended for a deeper explanation of linear types.