Justin Downey

This plugin adds the <code>loading</code> attribute to IMG tags found when filtering <code>the_content()</code> to support native image lazy loading.
For more information about lazy loading images using this new native browser image attribute, check out this article: <a href="https://addyosmani.com/blog/lazy-loading/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://addyosmani.com/blog/lazy-loading/</a> and for a little more depth into what we’re doing here, check out our <a href="https://jdmdig.it/30nXp7h" rel="nofollow ugc">explainer post</a>.
Historically, to limit the impact offscreen images have on page load times, developers have needed to use a JavaScript library (like <a href="https://github.com/aFarkas/lazysizes" rel="nofollow ugc">LazySizes</a> or <a href="https://www.andreaverlicchi.eu/lazyload/" rel="nofollow ugc">Vanilla-LazyLoad</a>) in order to defer fetching these images until a user scrolls near them. What if the browser could avoid loading these offscreen images for you?
The <code>loading</code> attribute instructs a browser to defer loading offscreen images until users scroll near them. It comes in three flavors: eager, auto, and lazy. Install this plugin and you can set the first image’s loading attribute and the loading attribute for all the subsequent images sent through <code>the_content()</code> in the plugin’s settings page.
Simple is Beautiful
There is no JavaScript or CSS included in the plugin. It just works in browsers that support the new <code>loading</code> image attribute.
For browsers that don’t support this new image loading attribute, that’s ok. You can still use whatever JavaScript-based image lazy loader you want as a fallback until browser support becomes a little more mainstream.

Native Image Lazy Loading

Automatically add the new loading attribute to images within your content to support native image lazy loading.

Native Image Lazy Loading vs BerqWP – Automated All-In-One Page Speed Optimization for Core Web Vitals, Cache, CDN, Images, CSS, and JavaScript