scheduler.yield() Offers a Cleaner Way to Fix Slow Browser Interactions
A browser API called scheduler.yield() is now available in Chrome and Edge (since version 129, September 2024) as an improved alternative to the traditional setTimeout trick for breaking up long JavaScript tasks. Long tasks block the main thread, preventing the browser from painting updates or responding to user input, which negatively affects the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric. Unlike setTimeout, which sends a function's continuation to the back of the task queue behind unrelated work, scheduler.yield() places the resumption in a prioritized queue so the original task isn't delayed by lower-priority callbacks. The API is not yet supported in Safari or Firefox, covering roughly 70% of global traffic, so developers are advised to use a feature-detection fallback that defaults to setTimeout when the API is unavailable.
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