Google’s Interaction to Next Paint (INP) has officially replaced First Input Delay (FID) as the core responsiveness metric, representing the most significant Core Web Vitals update since the program’s launch. This change fundamentally alters how websites must approach performance optimization, with stricter thresholds now requiring sites to maintain consistent responsiveness throughout entire user sessions, not just initial interactions.
The new performance standards are demanding: INP scores must stay below 200 milliseconds for “good” ratings, with anything above 500ms considered “poor”. Meanwhile, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) thresholds have become more stringent, pushing the performance bar higher across all metrics.
Real-world impact data demonstrates the business consequences of poor Core Web Vitals. The Economic Times improved their CLS by 250% and LCP by 80%, resulting in a 43% reduction in bounce rates. Similarly, Agrofy achieved a 70% LCP improvement, correlating with a 76% drop in load abandonment from 3.8% to just 0.9%.
The shift emphasizes field data over lab measurements, with Google’s algorithms prioritizing real user experience metrics from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX). This means performance optimizations must focus on actual user conditions rather than synthetic testing environments.
Technical implications are substantial: developers must now monitor and optimize for continuous interactivity, not just first-click responsiveness. Long-running JavaScript tasks, render-blocking resources, and inefficient event handlers can severely impact INP scores, requiring fundamental changes to how interactive elements are implemented.
The update reflects Google’s commitment to user experience as a ranking factor, with Core Web Vitals continuing to influence search visibility directly. Sites failing to meet these elevated standards risk significant ranking penalties, making performance optimization a critical SEO priority for 2025.