Early Hints and Browser Support: How to Speed Up Sites Even When Safari is Not Onboard
Blog post from Harper
Early Hints, a web performance enhancement using the HTTP 103 status code, enable browsers to begin fetching essential page components like CSS, JavaScript, and images before the complete HTML is delivered, effectively improving metrics such as Time to First Byte (TTFB) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). While browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox currently support Early Hints, Safari does not, suggesting a mixed adoption landscape. Despite this, implementing Early Hints remains valuable due to the significant user base on supportive browsers, and the fallback mechanisms like preload and preconnect headers ensure that unsupported browsers still benefit. To optimize performance across all users, it's recommended to focus on critical assets and utilize both lab tools like Lighthouse and Real User Monitoring (RUM) for comprehensive impact measurement. Overall, adopting Early Hints offers a low-effort, high-reward optimization that can provide immediate benefits in user engagement and satisfaction, even as browser adoption continues to evolve.
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