This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Lazy Load

Description

Lazy load images to improve page load times. Uses jQuery.sonar to only load an image when it’s visible in the viewport.

This plugin is an amalgamation of code written by the WordPress.com VIP team at Automattic, the TechCrunch 2011 Redesign team, and Jake Goldman (10up LLC).

Uses jQuery.sonar by Dave Artz (AOL).

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin to your plugins directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. Enjoy!

FAQ

How do I change the placeholder image

add_filter( ‘lazyload_images_placeholder_image’, ‘my_custom_lazyload_placeholder_image’ );
function my_custom_lazyload_placeholder_image( $image ) {
return ‘http://url/to/image’;
}

How do I lazy load other images in my theme?

You can use the lazyload_images_add_placeholders helper function:

if ( function_exists( 'lazyload_images_add_placeholders' ) )
    $content = lazyload_images_add_placeholders( $content );

Or, you can add an attribute called “data-lazy-src” with the source of the image URL and set the actual image URL to a transparent 1×1 pixel.

You can also use output buffering, though this isn’t recommended:

if ( function_exists( 'lazyload_images_add_placeholders' ) )
    ob_start( 'lazyload_images_add_placeholders' );

This will lazy load all your images.

Reviews

Kafuumuulampawu 29, 2023
Having this plugin installed on my WordPress pages for some time resulted in having them all malware-infected which happened literally yesterday. The plugin had its name changed to some ‘WordPress CMS module’ and its directory name was changed as well.
Ogwekkuminogumu (Museenene) 18, 2019
It produces random grayed out pictures within Jupiter theme image galleries. The galleries work like charm after disabling this bundled plugin.
Mukutulansanja 10, 2019
Seems to work for some images but not for all, with no real explanation about why. There are no configuration options so I couldn’t find a way to fine-tune it.
Ogwekkuminogumu (Museenene) 1, 2018
The idea might be good but its messing up the entire websites, mostly on different sliders.
Read all 53 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Lazy Load” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Lazy Load” has been translated into 7 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Lazy Load” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

0.6.1

0.6

  • Filter to control when lazy loading is enabled

0.5

  • Fix lazyload_images_add_placeholders by adding missing return, props Kevin Smith
  • Lazy load avatars, props i8ramin
  • Don’t lazy load images in the Dashboard
  • Better compatibility with Jetpack Carousel

0.4

  • New helper function to lazy load non-post content
  • Prevent circular lazy-loading

0.3

  • Make LazyLoad a static class so that it’s easier to change its hooks
  • Hook in at a higher priority for content filters

0.2

  • Adds noscript tags to allow the image to show up in no-js contexts (including crawlers), props smub
  • Lazy Load post thumbnails, props ivancamilov

0.1

  • Initial working version