There are plugins available for adding a lazy loading effect to images in WordPress, but some bloggers and content marketers were looking for an official move. So finally, WordPress announced that the Lazy-Loading feature may be introduced in WordPress 5.4 update.
By default, it will enable the “lazy loading” feature by implementing HTML attributes to all the IMG elements in the front-end of WordPress-powered blogs and sites.
WordPress 5.4 Release Date
The official date of release for WordPress is 31st March 2020 and a number of features could be released with this update, one of them will be the lazy-loading effect.
According to WordPress:
“The implementation seeks to enable lazy-loading images by default, providing the loading attribute with value lazy on the following img tags:
- Images in post content
- Images in post excerpts
- Images in comments
- Images in text widget content
- Individual images rendered via wp_get_attachment_image()
- Avatar images rendered via get_avatar()
While if a webmaster doesn’t want to make images lazy load, he will have to add an “eager-load” command to tell the browser load images immediately.
This may also the out-dated feature even before the release as many browsers will have this feature in several upcoming updates to them as the Data Saver Mode in most of the browsers should have this feature.
Official WordPress Lazy-Loading Plugin
WordPress is serious about this feature and for testing purposes, they even released a dedicated WordPress lazy-loading plugin that is now available in the WordPress plugins market.
If you want to test that, you can do it right now and send them your feedback for making it a really awesome feature.
