What does wp-embed.min.js do in WordPress 4.4?

Question

Question

1. What does the wp-embed.min.js file do? I noticed it is added to the end of my blog page footer.
2. How can I get rid of it?

Effort

After some googling and I found Embeds on the Codex. Why does WordPress think I want to add videos, etc. to my page by default?

Environment

WordPress 4.4

Answer 1

What is it?

It is responsible for converting links into embed frames.

For example you can paste a Youtube video link into the editor content section and the Youtube embed will be generated for you when your page is viewed.

More information on WordPress Documentation

How to get rid of it?

I could finally get rid of that using this:

function my_deregister_scripts(){
  wp_deregister_script( 'wp-embed' );
}
add_action( 'wp_footer', 'my_deregister_scripts' );

Answer 2

I arrived at this thread with the same question: What does the wp-embed.min.js file do? None of the current answers accurately address this question.

Firstly, I am fairly certain that embed.min.js does not relate to embedding oEmbed content from other providers: Vimeo, YouTube etc. You can remove embed.min.js and those embeds will continue to function.

It relates specifically to embeding WordPress posts from other people's blogs/websites. Embedding WordPress posts inside WordPress posts: so meta! This feature was introduced in WordPress 4.4.

Disabling embed.min.js will stop that feature from working on your site.

You can test this easily: Paste the URL of someone else's WordPress post into one of your own posts. WP should convert that URL into an embedded widget. When you view your post on the front-end you will notice that your markup contains a blockquote and an iframe. The blockquote is a text-only link to the blog post you embedded, while the source of the iFrame is the blog post's URL with /embed/ appended: its oEmbed endpoint.

embed.min.js hides the blockquote and reveals the iframe. It also does some other shenanigans to make the iframe play nice.

Now, try removing the embed.min.js script from your page using one of the methods described in the other answers. Reload your page and you'll notice that the blockquote is visible but the iframe is hidden.

In short: if you want to embed other people's WordPress posts into your own WordPress posts, leave embed.min.js alone. If you don't care about this feature then you can safely remove it.

Answer 3

Trix's answer didn't work out for me on WordPress 4.4.1, but I found a solution in the code of Disable Embeds WordPress plugin. Add this code (modified) in your theme's functions.php file to remove the wp-embed.min.js file from the frontend completely:

add_action( 'init', function() {

    // Remove the REST API endpoint.
    remove_action('rest_api_init', 'wp_oembed_register_route');

    // Turn off oEmbed auto discovery.
    // Don't filter oEmbed results.
    remove_filter('oembed_dataparse', 'wp_filter_oembed_result', 10);

    // Remove oEmbed discovery links.
    remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_discovery_links');

    // Remove oEmbed-specific JavaScript from the front-end and back-end.
    remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_host_js');
}, PHP_INT_MAX - 1 );

Answer 4

I think this part is still missing.

What does the wp-embed.min.js file do? I noticed it is added to the end of my blog page footer.

The answer to this question is in the track. https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/35708

Embeds: Remove & characters from the inline embed JS.

Older versions of WordPress will convert those & characters to &, which makes for some non-functional JS. If folks are running an older release, let's not make their lives more difficult than it already is.

It will also try to sniff the user agent.

Answer 5

Aug 2022 - WordPress 6.0.1

Others have given answers to OP's doubt.
I am just giving more insight into wp-embed

What does the wp-embed.min.js file do?

In short, It will make your link pretty

Add a block that displays content pulled from other sites, like Twitter or YouTube.
WordPress Block

Example

With wp-embed

Without wp-embed

If you turn off the wp-embed in the functions, this is how it looks in the front end.

How can I get rid of it?

Something to know that this script sits in your footer

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://YOURSITE/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js?ver=6.0.1' id='wp-embed-js'></script>

So you have two options. One is using wp_enqueue_scripts and another is to use the wp_footer.

Using wp_enqueue_scripts

function deregister_style_scripts() {
    wp_deregister_script( 'wp-embed' );
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'deregister_style_scripts', 100 );

Using wp_footer

function deregister_style_scripts() {
    wp_deregister_script( 'wp-embed' );
}
add_action( 'wp_footer', 'deregister_style_scripts' );

How to embed the link

Use the Embed block

Embed doesn't work?

This usually happens when they do not want to embed their content within their site or outside. This can be controlled via X-Frame-Options, there are two directives DENY and SAMEORIGIN

Refused to connect

x-frame-options: DENY

Sorry, this content could not be embedded.

x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN

Read more

About Embeds: https://wordpress.org/support/article/embeds/
x-Frame-Options: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Frame-Options