imgix is supporting HTTP-2 for even faster web image requests

As the HTTP/1.x begins to become aged, HTTP/2 is quickly emerging to take its place as the new standard protocol. But what does that mean for the average developer?

HTTP has gone through a number of revisions since its inception in 1997, but the newest updates to the dated protocol looks to speed things up. By enabling developers to combine multiple concurrent image requests through a single server connection, it looks to deliver a significant speed boost for media-heavy pages.

imgix, a provider of on-demand image processing for websites and mobile apps, wants to harness that new power by adapting its platform to support the new HTTP/2 protocol. Their company does on-demand image processing for websites and mobile apps, delivering faster load-page time and clearer images, while ensuring audiences experience visuals work in a more meaningful way.

“Many of our clients, from major media companies to e-commerce leaders, use us to serve multimedia-rich pages with multiple images,” said Jeremy Larkin, imgix Co-founder and CTO. “They need us for the fastest, most stable and secure way to serve images. The support of this new standard is another way that we’re ensuring our clients and their end users have the best experience on any device.”

HTTP/2 allows for request multiplexing, a more modern way of transmitting complicated requests to a server. Prior to the change, each individual piece of media on a page would have to be fetched in sequential requests, which must be executed by the server in a first come, first serve manner. Multiplexing allows these requests to be overlapped using a single connection, and the server may respond without waiting for earlier requests to complete. Since each individual request introduces the opportunity for lag, this more modern approach often results in much faster load times.

HTTP/2 support has been automatically enabled for all imgix customer accounts and will be the default connection method over secure (HTTPS) connections. There is no additional cost or setup necessary to use HTTP/2.