diff --git a/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/backend_wasm.ts b/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/backend_wasm.ts
index 8717019c9bf..51308b3624b 100644
--- a/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/backend_wasm.ts
+++ b/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/backend_wasm.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  * =============================================================================
  */
+import './flags_wasm';
 
 import {backend_util, BackendTimingInfo, DataStorage, DataType, engine, KernelBackend, registerBackend, TensorInfo, util} from '@tensorflow/tfjs-core';
 
diff --git a/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/flags_wasm.ts b/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/flags_wasm.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..69c3c286cf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tfjs-backend-wasm/src/flags_wasm.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+/**
+ * @license
+ * Copyright 2020 Google LLC. All Rights Reserved.
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ * =============================================================================
+ */
+
+import {env} from '@tensorflow/tfjs-core';
+
+const ENV = env();
+
+/**
+ * True if SIMD is supported.
+ */
+// From: https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/wasm-feature-detect
+ENV.registerFlag(
+    'WASM_HAS_SIMD_SUPPORT', async () => WebAssembly.validate(new Uint8Array([
+      0, 97, 115, 109, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1,  4, 1,   96, 0,  0, 3,
+      2, 1,  0,   10,  9, 1, 7, 0, 65, 0, 253, 15, 26, 11
+    ])));
diff --git a/tfjs-core/src/environment.ts b/tfjs-core/src/environment.ts
index abd8f993877..b94b5aec636 100644
--- a/tfjs-core/src/environment.ts
+++ b/tfjs-core/src/environment.ts
@@ -21,11 +21,12 @@ import {Platform} from './platforms/platform';
 const TENSORFLOWJS_FLAGS_PREFIX = 'tfjsflags';
 
 type FlagValue = number|boolean;
+type FlagEvaluationFn = (() => FlagValue)|(() => Promise<FlagValue>);
 export type Flags = {
   [featureName: string]: FlagValue
 };
 export type FlagRegistryEntry = {
-  evaluationFn: () => FlagValue;
+  evaluationFn: FlagEvaluationFn;
   setHook?: (value: FlagValue) => void;
 };
 
@@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ export class Environment {
   }
 
   registerFlag(
-      flagName: string, evaluationFn: () => FlagValue,
+      flagName: string, evaluationFn: FlagEvaluationFn,
       setHook?: (value: FlagValue) => void) {
     this.flagRegistry[flagName] = {evaluationFn, setHook};
 
@@ -74,12 +75,28 @@ export class Environment {
     }
   }
 
+  async getAsync(flagName: string): Promise<FlagValue> {
+    if (flagName in this.flags) {
+      return this.flags[flagName];
+    }
+
+    this.flags[flagName] = await this.evaluateFlag(flagName);
+    return this.flags[flagName];
+  }
+
   get(flagName: string): FlagValue {
     if (flagName in this.flags) {
       return this.flags[flagName];
     }
 
-    this.flags[flagName] = this.evaluateFlag(flagName);
+    const flagValue = this.evaluateFlag(flagName);
+    if (flagValue instanceof Promise) {
+      throw new Error(
+          `Flag ${flagName} cannot be synchronously evaluated. ` +
+          `Please use getAsync() instead.`);
+    }
+
+    this.flags[flagName] = flagValue;
 
     return this.flags[flagName];
   }
@@ -111,7 +128,7 @@ export class Environment {
     }
   }
 
-  private evaluateFlag(flagName: string): FlagValue {
+  private evaluateFlag(flagName: string): FlagValue|Promise<FlagValue> {
     if (this.flagRegistry[flagName] == null) {
       throw new Error(
           `Cannot evaluate flag '${flagName}': no evaluation function found.`);
diff --git a/tfjs-core/src/flags_test.ts b/tfjs-core/src/flags_test.ts
index a0510077b3f..ee656cda90d 100644
--- a/tfjs-core/src/flags_test.ts
+++ b/tfjs-core/src/flags_test.ts
@@ -107,3 +107,19 @@ describe('IS_TEST', () => {
     expect(tf.env().getBool('IS_TEST')).toBe(false);
   });
 });
+
+describe('async flags test', () => {
+  const asyncFlagName = 'ASYNC_FLAG';
+  beforeEach(() => tf.env().registerFlag(asyncFlagName, async () => true));
+
+  afterEach(() => tf.env().reset());
+
+  it('evaluating async flag works', async () => {
+    const flagVal = await tf.env().getAsync(asyncFlagName);
+    expect(flagVal).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('evaluating async flag synchronously fails', async () => {
+    expect(() => tf.env().get(asyncFlagName)).toThrow();
+  });
+});