On October 13, 2026, Chrome added experimental versions of LCP, INP and CLS to the Chrome UX Report (CrUX) that include soft navigations, the JavaScript-driven page changes single-page apps make without loading a new document. About 70% of sites have little or no soft navigation traffic and should see no change; SPA-heavy sites will generally score better. Search Console keeps using the stable metrics until Chrome graduates the new ones, which it is aiming to do in May 2027.
What Chrome changed
Core Web Vitals now have an experimental version that measures single-page apps fairly. On October 13, Chrome's Annie Sullivan announced that the Chrome UX Report, the real-user data behind Search Console's Core Web Vitals report, now includes experimental versions of all three metrics.
The difference is soft navigations. In a single-page app, a click doesn't load a new page; JavaScript swaps the content and updates the address bar. Plenty of modern sites work this way. The old metrics mostly saw only the first load of a visit, so every later click was either invisible or lumped onto that first page.
It's like judging a hitter only by his first at-bat of the game. You'd get a number, but not a fair one.
Who it affects
Most sites: nobody. Chrome says about 70% of sites in its data have little or no soft-navigation traffic. If every click on your site loads a new page, as on most WordPress or Squarespace sites, expect no change.
App-style sites: a lot. For sites that are mostly soft navigations, Chrome's Android example shows the share with good loading scores jumping from 26% to 87%.
Chrome is honest about why. Follow-up clicks are fast on any site, which lifts the averages. Responsiveness for app-style sites still trails ordinary sites, so heavy JavaScript during clicks still hurts.
What hasn't changed
Search Console and rankings stay on the current metrics until the new ones leave experimental status. Chrome is aiming for May 2027 and warns the numbers may move around until then. Treat that as a target, not a date.
What I'd do
If you run a marketing site on a normal CMS: nothing new. Image sizes, fonts, third-party scripts and layout stability are still the work.
If your site or product is an app-style build:
- Compare your numbers in CrUX Vis with soft navigations switched on.
- Look at responsiveness when people move between screens. That's where the lag lives.
- Don't rebuild your front end just to pass Core Web Vitals until you've seen the new numbers. The gap may be smaller than the old report said.
- Don't redesign around a preview. Fix real slowness, not the metric.
My take: this is a correction, not a new rule. A whole category of sites was being scored with a broken ruler. Some teams spent years blaming their framework, when part of the problem was the measuring stick.
Questions we hear a lot
What is a soft navigation?
It's when a single-page app (built with frameworks like React, Vue or Next.js in client-side mode) swaps the page content and updates the URL with JavaScript instead of loading a new HTML document. Until now, Core Web Vitals mostly measured only the first, full page load of a visit.
Will the new soft navigation metrics change my Google rankings?
Not yet. Google says stable Core Web Vitals scores are unchanged and Search Console will only switch to the new data after the metrics leave experimental status, which Chrome is aiming for in May 2027, subject to feedback.
How do I see whether my site is affected?
Chrome's CrUX Vis tool has an option to include soft navigations, so you can compare your origin with and without them. The experimental data is also in the CrUX API, the CrUX History API and BigQuery, if your site has enough Chrome traffic to appear in CrUX.
Sources
- web.dev: Introducing experimental Core Web Vitals metrics to the Chrome UX Report (Oct 13, 2026)
- Chrome for Developers: Chrome UX Report release notes
- Search Engine Journal: Google adds experimental soft navigation metrics to CrUX
Filed under Development
Evan Walker
Founder & Creative Director at Satellite Black, with experience across a broad range of industries working as a Creative Director, Developer, and strategist.
