Chrome added experimental versions of LCP, INP and CLS to the Chrome UX Report (CrUX) that count soft navigations: page changes inside single-page apps that happen without a full reload. Before, CrUX only measured a single-page app's first load. About 70% of origins have little or no soft navigation traffic, so most sites won't see much change. Stable scores haven't changed. Chrome aims to end the experimental stage in May 2027, and Search Console will switch to the new data after that.
For most Shopify stores on a normal theme, nothing changes. Every click reloads the page, so the toggle makes no difference.
If you run a headless or Hydrogen store, this matters. Google will start judging every in-page change, not just the first load. The article says scores for sites like these tend to go up, but heavy JavaScript during page changes can still hurt INP, the measure of how fast a page responds to a tap.
Speed is a conversion lever first and an SEO one second. A slow tap from product grid to product page loses the sale long before Google notices.