For years, Core Web Vitals had a blind spot. They measured the first page load well, but in single-page applications (SPAs), most of what users do happens after that: clicking a link changes the content and the URL with JavaScript, without loading a new page. These are called soft navigations, and until now the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) mostly ignored them. On October 13, 2026, Chrome announced experimental versions of the three Core Web Vitals that include them.
What is new
Together with the Soft Navigations API in Chrome 151, the October 2026 CrUX release adds three experimental metrics:
experimental_largest_contentful_paint_with_softnavs(LCP)experimental_interaction_to_next_paint_with_softnavs(INP)experimental_cumulative_layout_shift_with_softnavs(CLS)
They are available in the CrUX BigQuery dataset, the CrUX API and the CrUX History API, and CrUX Vis already shows them. Chrome plans to add soft-navigation versions of First Contentful Paint and navigation types in the November release.
Does it change your Core Web Vitals score?
Not yet. The official Core Web Vitals and the reports in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights still use the current metrics while the new ones are tested. Chrome’s target is to move Search Console to the new data once the metrics stop being experimental, around May 2027, depending on feedback. Google has not said anything about rankings, so there is no reason to think anything changes in search today.
Which sites are affected
Most websites will see little or no difference. Chrome says that only around 7% to 11% of origins use soft navigations for more than half of their page views. A classic WordPress site, where every click loads a new page, is not affected.
The change matters for SPAs with many navigations after the first load, built with frameworks such as React, Vue, Angular or Next.js in client-side routing mode. Chrome says these account for 35% of the top 1,000 sites on Android and 42% on desktop. For those sites, Chrome expects LCP and CLS to look better, because later views are usually faster than the first load. INP should also improve on average, but heavy JavaScript during transitions can still cause slow interactions.
What SPA owners should do now
- Look at your experimental data. Compare the regular and the
_with_softnavsmetrics for your origin in CrUX Vis or the CrUX API. A big gap tells you how much of your users’ experience the old metrics were missing. - Watch INP during route changes. If the new INP is worse than the old one, transitions are blocking the main thread. Split long tasks, defer non-essential work and avoid re-rendering the whole page on every route change.
- Avoid layout shifts after navigation. Reserve space for content that loads after a route change, such as images, ads and lazy components, so CLS stays low.
- Update your real user monitoring. Recent versions of Google’s web-vitals library and many RUM tools are adding soft navigation support, so your own data can match what CrUX will report.
- Do not forget crawlability. Soft navigations are about users. For search engines, each view still needs its own URL, a proper link and content that renders. Check how a page looks to crawlers with our SEO Audit tool.
The metrics are experimental and may change month to month, and Chrome is collecting feedback through its web-vitals-feedback group. If you run an SPA, this is the moment to check your numbers, before they become the ones Search Console reports.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What is a soft navigation?
A navigation in which JavaScript changes the page content and the URL without a full page load, as in most single-page applications.
Do the new metrics affect Google rankings?
There is no indication that they do. They are experimental, and the official Core Web Vitals and Search Console reports still use the current metrics.
When will Search Console use soft navigation data?
Chrome is targeting May 2027 for the metrics to leave the experimental phase, depending on feedback.
Is my WordPress site affected?
Usually not. Classic WordPress sites load a new page on every click, so they have few or no soft navigations.