Components in Angular 2 are similar to directives in Angular 1 but provide a more robust structure. Components can define templates, styles, and logic for a custom element. The document then discusses using component routing to load different views into named outlets, similar to Angular 1's ui-router. It provides an example of defining a route configuration that specifies which component to load into each outlet for a report page. Finally, it mentions migrating from Angular 1 to Angular 2.