diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 5f215505f..3c2da8c67 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -157,6 +157,7 @@
 
 * 1.38.0 (2019-XX-XX)
 
+ * added a spaceless filter
  * added max value to the "random" function
  * made namespace classes the default classes (PSR-0 ones are aliases now)
  * removed duplicated directory separator in FilesystemLoader
diff --git a/doc/filters/spaceless.rst b/doc/filters/spaceless.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..013124d25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/filters/spaceless.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+``spaceless``
+=============
+
+.. versionadded:: 1.38
+
+    The ``spaceless`` filter was added in Twig 1.38.
+
+Use the ``spaceless`` filter to remove whitespace *between HTML tags*, not
+whitespace within HTML tags or whitespace in plain text:
+
+.. code-block:: jinja
+
+    {{
+        "<div>
+            <strong>foo</strong>
+        </div>
+        "|spaceless }}
+
+    {# output will be <div><strong>foo</strong></div> #}
+
+You can combine ``spaceless`` with the ``filter`` tag to apply the
+transformation on large amounts of HTML:
+
+.. code-block:: jinja
+
+    {% filter spaceless %}
+        <div>
+            <strong>foo</strong>
+        </div>
+    {% endfilter %}
+
+    {# output will be <div><strong>foo</strong></div> #}
+
+This tag is not meant to "optimize" the size of the generated HTML content but
+merely to avoid extra whitespace between HTML tags to avoid browser rendering
+quirks under some circumstances.
+
+.. tip::
+
+    If you want to optimize the size of the generated HTML content, gzip
+    compress the output instead.
+
+.. tip::
+
+    If you want to create a tag that actually removes all extra whitespace in
+    an HTML string, be warned that this is not as easy as it seems to be
+    (think of ``textarea`` or ``pre`` tags for instance). Using a third-party
+    library like Tidy is probably a better idea.
+
+.. tip::
+
+    For more information on whitespace control, read the
+    :ref:`dedicated section <templates-whitespace-control>` of the documentation and learn how
+    you can also use the whitespace control modifier on your tags.
diff --git a/doc/tags/spaceless.rst b/doc/tags/spaceless.rst
index b39cb27ef..14858243f 100644
--- a/doc/tags/spaceless.rst
+++ b/doc/tags/spaceless.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 ``spaceless``
 =============
 
+.. tip::
+
+    As of Twig 1.38, use the :doc:`spaceless <../filters/spaceless>` filter instead.
+
 Use the ``spaceless`` tag to remove whitespace *between HTML tags*, not
 whitespace within HTML tags or whitespace in plain text:
 
diff --git a/src/Extension/CoreExtension.php b/src/Extension/CoreExtension.php
index 2fba7d4c3..26a4ebfc7 100644
--- a/src/Extension/CoreExtension.php
+++ b/src/Extension/CoreExtension.php
@@ -218,6 +218,7 @@ final class CoreExtension extends AbstractExtension
             new TwigFilter('striptags', 'strip_tags'),
             new TwigFilter('trim', 'twig_trim_filter'),
             new TwigFilter('nl2br', 'nl2br', ['pre_escape' => 'html', 'is_safe' => ['html']]),
+            new TwigFilter('spaceless', 'twig_spaceless', ['is_safe' => ['html']]),
 
             // array helpers
             new TwigFilter('join', 'twig_join_filter'),
@@ -380,6 +381,7 @@ function twig_random(Environment $env, $values = null, $max = null)
             $min = $values;
             $max = $max;
         }
+
         return mt_rand($min, $max);
     }
 
@@ -961,6 +963,16 @@ function twig_trim_filter($string, $characterMask = null, $side = 'both')
     }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Removes whitespaces between HTML tags.
+ *
+ * @return string
+ */
+function twig_spaceless($content)
+{
+    return preg_replace('/>\s+</', '><', $content);
+}
+
 /**
  * Escapes a string.
  *
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/spaceless.test b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/spaceless.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..eadc1d496
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/filters/spaceless.test
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+--TEST--
+"spaceless" filter
+--TEMPLATE--
+{{ "    <div>   <div>   foo   </div>   </div>"|spaceless }}
+--DATA--
+return []
+--EXPECT--
+<div><div>   foo   </div></div>
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr.test b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr.test
index b7bef6463..0b82d4cf2 100644
--- a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr.test
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr.test
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ block_expr
     {{- parent() -}}
 {% endblock %}
 --TEMPLATE(base.twig)--
-{% spaceless %}
 {% block element -%}
     <div>
         {%- if item.children is defined %}
@@ -18,7 +17,6 @@ block_expr
         {%- endif -%}
     </div>
 {%- endblock %}
-{% endspaceless %}
 --DATA--
 return [
     'item' => [
diff --git a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr2.test b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr2.test
index 2d22852a7..18f660411 100644
--- a/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr2.test
+++ b/test/Twig/Tests/Fixtures/tags/inheritance/block_expr2.test
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ block_expr2
 --TEMPLATE(base2.twig)--
 {% extends "base.twig" %}
 --TEMPLATE(base.twig)--
-{% spaceless %}
 {% block element -%}
     <div>
         {%- if item.children is defined %}
@@ -20,7 +19,6 @@ block_expr2
         {%- endif -%}
     </div>
 {%- endblock %}
-{% endspaceless %}
 --DATA--
 return [
     'item' => [