You have to look to official ReactiveX documentation: https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs/blob/master/doc/pipeable-operators.md.
This is a good article about piping in RxJS: https://blog.hackages.io/rxjs-5-5-piping-all-the-things-9d469d1b3f44.
In short .pipe() allows chaining multiple pipeable operators.
Starting in version 5.5 RxJS has shipped "pipeable operators" and renamed some operators:
do -> tap
catch -> catchError
switch -> switchAll
finally -> finalize