Chromium Blog
News and developments from the open source browser project
Transitioning from SPDY to HTTP/2
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Last year we
announced
our intent to end support for the experimental protocol SPDY in favor of the standardized version,
HTTP/2
. HTTP/2 is the next-generation protocol for transferring information on the web, improving upon HTTP/1.1 with more features leading to better performance. Since then we've seen huge adoption of HTTP/2 from both
web
servers
and
browsers
, with most now supporting HTTP/2. Over 25% of resources in Chrome are currently served over HTTP/2, compared to less than 5% over SPDY. Based on such strong adoption, starting on May 15th — the anniversary of the
HTTP/2 RFC
— Chrome will no longer support SPDY. Servers that do not support HTTP/2 by that time will serve Chrome requests over HTTP/1.1, providing the exact same features to users without the enhanced performance of HTTP/2.
At the same time, Chrome will stop supporting the TLS protocol extension
NPN
, which allows servers to negotiate SPDY and HTTP/2 connections with clients. NPN has been superseded by the TLS extension
ALPN
, published by the IETF in 2014. ALPN is already used 99% of the time to negotiate HTTP/2 with Chrome, and the remaining servers can gain ALPN support by
upgrading their SSL library
.
We are looking forward to HTTP/2 continuing to gain adoption, bringing us an even faster web.
Update: To better align with Chrome's release cycle, SPDY and NPN support will be removed with the release of Chrome 51
.
Posted by Bence Béky, Network Protocol Engineer and HTTP/2 Enthusiast
Labels
10th birthday
4
accessibility
1
benchmarks
1
beta
10
birthday
4
blink
1
browser
1
browser interoperability
1
capabilities
1
capable web
1
chrome
5
chrome apps
3
Chrome Frame
1
chrome web store
26
chromeframe
3
chromeos
3
chromium
3
cloud print
1
dart
8
dashboard
1
design
1
devtools
12
extensions
23
feedback
1
gdd
1
googlechrome
12
html5
11
incognito
1
javascript
3
linux
2
mac
1
mobile
2
na
1
native client
8
New Features
5
octane
1
open web
3
performance
1
releases
3
rlz
1
security
30
spdy
2
speed
1
ssl
2
v8
6
web intents
1
webapi
1
webaudio
3
webgl
7
webkit
5
webp
5
webrtc
4
websockets
5
webtiming
1
Archive
2018
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Feed
Google
on
Follow @ChromiumDev
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
