Lazy Loading for Video & Audio in Chrome

The missing piece for video-heavy pages

Status: ✅ Landed in Chromium (CL 7511253 merged Feb 20, 2026)

The Gap

Since 2019, we've had this:

<img src="photo.jpg" loading="lazy">

But not this:

<video src="hero.mp4" loading="lazy">  <!-- Nope -->
<audio src="podcast.mp3" loading="lazy">  <!-- Nope -->

Six years later, that's finally changing.

Why It Matters

Think about:

Podcast platforms — 50+ audio players on a single page
E-commerce — Product videos below the fold
Landing pages — Hero video plus 3 more sections with video
Documentation — Embedded tutorial videos throughout

All of these eagerly load every media file upfront. Bandwidth wasted on content users might never scroll to.

The Effort

This isn't a solo project. Scott Jehl and the Squarespace team have been driving a proper cross-browser standardization effort:

HTML Spec proposal written and submitted
Firefox patch in review
WebKit patch ready
Web Platform Tests contributed (15+ tests)
Mozilla has an official positive standards position

When Yoav Weiss posted in Chromium Slack that they needed someone for the Chrome side, I figured the Firefox patch and WPTs would make it straightforward to port. They did.

WPTs passing in patched Chromium

The Behavior

<video loading="lazy" poster="thumb.jpg" autoplay muted>
  <source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <track src="captions.vtt" kind="subtitles">
</video>

What	When `loading="lazy"`
Video/audio source	Waits for viewport
Poster image	Waits for viewport
Track elements (captions)	Waits for viewport
Autoplay	Queued until visible

Changes from lazy to eager? Triggers immediate load.

The implementation reuses Chromium's existing lazy load infrastructure—same intersection observer as images, same network-aware margins.

Status

Browser	Patch	Standards Position
Chromium	MERGED CL 7511253	POSITIVE
Firefox	IN REVIEW D278547	POSITIVE
WebKit	Ready (not submitted)	PENDING