Google is testing a new feature that may speed up page-loading times on both Android and iOS devices. The change is coming to Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, the latter of which includes Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi — many of them essential Android web browsers better than Chrome. The feature change has to do with “lazy loading,” a function that defers the initial loading of various resources when you visit a site.
Traditionally, when you land on a page, the browser loads all necessary elements before displaying them, which includes videos, images, and audio. That’s why pages can take longer to load if they contain a lot of media or content. Lazy loading defers that process, postponing elements that don’t need to be shown yet, instead only loading them as you scroll. Think of it like this: it might load the top video and text for a page, with the lower content pending because it’s out of view. As you scroll down, it loads those elements.
But the first time you visit, and it loads the initial parts of the webpage, it’s faster. It doesn’t have to handle the excess data. This has been an active feature for years for images and iframe elements. As page media loads naturally, by the way, it can take up cache space on your device, which is why clearing it is one of the many ways to speed up your browser. Ultimately, the new update coming in Chrome 148 will apply lazy loading to video and audio, further improving performance.
How much of a difference will lazy loading actually make?
While it’s not exclusively because of lazy loading, Android’s mobile web performance optimizations offer some of the best experiences out there, according to Google. Lazy loading is also used by developers in mobile applications, not just the Chrome browser, with a known performance boost. It often works alongside data caching and ahead-of-time compilation techniques. The faster a website can load, the faster you get to see the content, and the more satisfied most users are.
Lazy loading doesn’t just improve performance, although that’s certainly an excellent benefit. It also reduces data usage by cutting down on how much is loaded initially, especially if you navigate away from a page before scrolling. Instead of loading all data associated with a website (images, video, audio, text, and code), it only loads what’s necessary initially, and then receives the rest as you scroll.
On mobile, where many are trying to reduce data consumption because of data caps, that’s a big deal. So, while lazy loading will definitely improve performance overall, the biggest difference for many will come from reduced data consumption. Moreover, since this change is coming to Chromium-based browsers, it will affect a lot of web experiences. You can still ditch Google Chrome and benefit from this update by using the alternatives.
