Using the View Transitions API

Let's walk through the process by which a view transition works:

1. A view transition is triggered. How this is done depends on the type of view transition:

   • In the case of same-document transitions (SPAs), a view transition is triggered by passing the function that would trigger the view change DOM update as a callback to the document.startViewTransition() method.
   • In the case of cross-document transitions (MPAs), a view transition is triggered by initiating navigation to a new document. Both the current and destination documents of the navigation need to be on the same origin, and opt-in to the view transition by including a @view-transition at rule in their CSS with a navigation descriptor of auto.

     Note: An active view transition has an associated ViewTransition instance (for example, returned by startViewTransition() in the case of same-document (SPA) transitions). The ViewTransition object includes several promises, allowing you to run code in response to different parts of the view transition process being reached. See Controlling view transitions with JavaScript for more information.

2. On the current (old page) view, the API captures snapshots of elements that have a view-transition-name declared on them.

3. The view change occurs:

   • In the case of same-document transitions (SPAs), the callback passed to startViewTransition() is invoked, which causes the DOM to change.

     When the callback has run successfully, the ViewTransition.updateCallbackDone promise fulfills, allowing you to respond to the DOM updating.

   • In the case of cross-document transitions (MPAs), the navigation occurs between the current and destination documents.

4. The API captures snapshots from the new view as a live representation.

   At this point, the view transition is about to run, and the ViewTransition.ready promise fulfills, allowing you to respond by running a custom JavaScript animation instead of the default, for example.

5. The old page snapshots animate "out", while the new view snapshots animate "in". By default, the old view snapshots animate from opacity 1 to 0, and the new view snapshots animate from opacity 0 to 1, which creates a cross-fade.

6. When the transition animations have reached their end states, the ViewTransition.finished promise fulfills, allowing you to respond.

To handle creating the outbound and inbound transition animations, the API constructs a pseudo-element tree with the following structure:

::view-transition
└─ ::view-transition-group(root)
  └─ ::view-transition-image-pair(root)
      ├─ ::view-transition-old(root)
      └─ ::view-transition-new(root)

In the case of same-document transitions (SPAs), the pseudo-element tree is made available in the document. In the case of cross-document transitions (MPAs), the pseudo-element tree is made available in the destination document only.

The most interesting parts of the tree structure are as follows:

• ::view-transition is the root of view transitions overlay, which contains all view transition snapshot groups and sits over the top of all other page content.

• A ::view-transition-group acts as a container for each view transition snapshot group. The root argument specifies the default snapshot group — the view transition animation will apply to the snapshot whose view-transition-name is root. By default, this is the :root element, because the default browser styles define this:

  css

  :root {
    view-transition-name: root;
  }
  

  Be aware however that page authors can change this by unsetting the above, and setting view-transition-name: root on a different element.

• ::view-transition-old targets the static snapshot of the old page element, and ::view-transition-new targets the live snapshot of the new page element. Both of these render as replaced content, in the same manner as an <img> or <video>, meaning that they can be styled with handy properties like object-fit and object-position.

This section illustrates how to create a basic view transition, in both the SPA and MPA case.

As an example, an SPA may include functionality to fetch new content and update the DOM in response to an event of some kind, such as a navigation link being clicked or an update being pushed from the server. In our View Transitions SPA demo we've simplified this to a displayNewImage() function that shows a new full-size image based on the thumbnail that was clicked. We've encapsulated this inside an updateView() function that only calls the View Transition API if the browser supports it:

function updateView(event) {
  // Handle the difference in whether the event is fired on the <a> or the <img>
  const targetIdentifier = event.target.firstChild || event.target;

  const displayNewImage = () => {
    const mainSrc = `${targetIdentifier.src.split("_th.jpg")[0]}.jpg`;
    galleryImg.src = mainSrc;
    galleryCaption.textContent = targetIdentifier.alt;
  };

  // Fallback for browsers that don't support View Transitions:
  if (!document.startViewTransition) {
    displayNewImage();
    return;
  }

  // With View Transitions:
  const transition = document.startViewTransition(() => displayNewImage());
}

This code is enough to handle the transition between displayed images. Supporting browsers will show the change from old to new images and captions as a smooth cross-fade (the default view transition). It will still work in non-supporting browsers but without the nice animation.

When creating a cross-document (MPA) view transition, the process is even simpler than for SPAs. No JavaScript is required, as the view update is triggered by a cross-document, same-origin navigation rather than a JavaScript-initiated DOM change. To enable a basic MPA view transition, you need to specify a @view-transition at-rule in the CSS for both the current and destination documents to opt them in, like so:

@view-transition {
  navigation: auto;
}

Our View Transitions MPA demo shows this at-rule in action, and additionally demonstrates how to customize the outbound and inbound animations of the view transition.

The View Transitions pseudo-elements have default CSS Animations applied (which are detailed in their reference pages).

Most appearance transitions are given a default smooth cross-fade animation, as mentioned above. There are some exceptions:

• height and width transitions have a smooth scaling animation applied.
• position and transform transitions have a smooth movement animation applied.

You can modify the default animations in any way you want using regular CSS — target the "from" animation with ::view-transition-old, and the "to" animation with ::view-transition-new.

For example, to change the speed of both:

::view-transition-old(root),
::view-transition-new(root) {
  animation-duration: 0.5s;
}

It is recommended that you target the ::view-transition-group() with such styles in cases where you want to apply them to ::view-transition-old() and ::view-transition-new(). Because of the pseudo-element hierarchy and default user-agent styling, the styles will be inherited by both. For example:

::view-transition-group(root) {
  animation-duration: 0.5s;
}

In the case of cross-document (MPA) transitions, the pseudo-elements need to be included in the destination document only for the view transition to work. If you want to use the view transition in both directions, you'll need to include it in both, of course.

Our View Transitions MPA demo includes the above CSS, but takes the customization a step further, defining custom animations and applying them to the ::view-transition-old(root) and ::view-transition-new(root) pseudo-elements. The result is that the default cross-fade transition is swapped out for a "swipe up" transition when navigation occurs:

/* Create a custom animation */

@keyframes move-out {
  from {
    transform: translateY(0%);
  }

  to {
    transform: translateY(-100%);
  }
}

@keyframes move-in {
  from {
    transform: translateY(100%);
  }

  to {
    transform: translateY(0%);
  }
}

/* Apply the custom animation to the old and new page states */

::view-transition-old(root) {
  animation: 0.4s ease-in both move-out;
}

::view-transition-new(root) {
  animation: 0.4s ease-in both move-in;
}

By default, all of the different elements that change during the view update are transitioned using the same animation. If you want some elements to animate differently from the default root animation, you can separate them out using the view-transition-name property. For example, in our View Transitions SPA demo the <figcaption> elements are given a view-transition-name of figure-caption to separate them from the rest of the page in terms of view transitions:

figcaption {
  view-transition-name: figure-caption;
}

With this CSS applied, the generated pseudo-element tree will now look like this:

::view-transition
├─ ::view-transition-group(root)
│ └─ ::view-transition-image-pair(root)
│     ├─ ::view-transition-old(root)
│     └─ ::view-transition-new(root)
└─ ::view-transition-group(figure-caption)
  └─ ::view-transition-image-pair(figure-caption)
      ├─ ::view-transition-old(figure-caption)
      └─ ::view-transition-new(figure-caption)

The existence of the second set of pseudo-elements allows separate view transition styling to be applied just to the <figcaption>. The different old and new view captures are handled separately from one another.

The following code applies a custom animation just to the <figcaption>:

@keyframes grow-x {
  from {
    transform: scaleX(0);
  }
  to {
    transform: scaleX(1);
  }
}

@keyframes shrink-x {
  from {
    transform: scaleX(1);
  }
  to {
    transform: scaleX(0);
  }
}

::view-transition-group(figure-caption) {
  height: auto;
  right: 0;
  left: auto;
  transform-origin: right center;
}

::view-transition-old(figure-caption) {
  animation: 0.25s linear both shrink-x;
}

::view-transition-new(figure-caption) {
  animation: 0.25s 0.25s linear both grow-x;
}

Here we've created a custom CSS animation and applied it to the ::view-transition-old(figure-caption) and ::view-transition-new(figure-caption) pseudo-elements. We've also added a number of other styles to both to keep them in the same place and stop the default styling from interfering with our custom animations.

::view-transition-group(*) {
  animation-duration: 2s;
}

Note that we also discovered another transition option that is simpler and produced a nicer result than the above. Our final <figcaption> view transition ended up looking like this:

figcaption {
  view-transition-name: figure-caption;
}

::view-transition-group(figure-caption) {
  height: 100%;
}

This works because, by default, ::view-transition-group transitions width and height between the old and new views with a smooth scale. We just needed to set a fixed height on both states to make it work.

A view transition has an associated ViewTransition object instance, which contains several promise members allowing you to run JavaScript in response to different states of the transition being reached. For example, ViewTransition.ready fulfills once the pseudo-element tree is created and the animation is about to start, whereas ViewTransition.finished fulfills once the animation is finished, and the new page view is visible and interactive to the user.

The ViewTransition can be accessed like so:

1. In the case of same-document (SPA) transitions, the document.startViewTransition() method returns the ViewTransition associated with the transition.

2. In the case of cross-document (MPA) transitions:

   • A pageswap event is fired when a document is about to be unloaded due to a navigation. Its event object (PageSwapEvent) provides access to the ViewTransition via the PageSwapEvent.viewTransition property, as well as a NavigationActivation via PageSwapEvent.activation containing the navigation type and current and destination document history entries.

     Note: If the navigation has a cross-origin URL anywhere in the redirect chain, the activation property returns null.

   • A pagereveal event is fired when a document is first rendered, either when loading a fresh document from the network or activating a document (either from back/forward cache (bfcache) or prerender). Its event object (PageRevealEvent) provides access to the ViewTransition via the PageRevealEvent.viewTransition property.

Let's have a look at some example code to show how these features could be used.

The following JavaScript could be used to create a circular reveal view transition emanating from the position of the user's cursor on click, with animation provided by the Web Animations API.

// Store the last click event
let lastClick;
addEventListener("click", (event) => (lastClick = event));

function spaNavigate(data) {
  // Fallback for browsers that don't support this API:
  if (!document.startViewTransition) {
    updateTheDOMSomehow(data);
    return;
  }

  // Get the click position, or fallback to the middle of the screen
  const x = lastClick?.clientX ?? innerWidth / 2;
  const y = lastClick?.clientY ?? innerHeight / 2;
  // Get the distance to the furthest corner
  const endRadius = Math.hypot(
    Math.max(x, innerWidth - x),
    Math.max(y, innerHeight - y),
  );

  // Create a transition:
  const transition = document.startViewTransition(() => {
    updateTheDOMSomehow(data);
  });

  // Wait for the pseudo-elements to be created:
  transition.ready.then(() => {
    // Animate the root's new view
    document.documentElement.animate(
      {
        clipPath: [
          `circle(0 at ${x}px ${y}px)`,
          `circle(${endRadius}px at ${x}px ${y}px)`,
        ],
      },
      {
        duration: 500,
        easing: "ease-in",
        // Specify which pseudo-element to animate
        pseudoElement: "::view-transition-new(root)",
      },
    );
  });
}

This animation also requires the following CSS, to turn off the default CSS animation and stop the old and new view states from blending in any way (the new state "wipes" right over the top of the old state, rather than transitioning in):

::view-transition-image-pair(root) {
  isolation: auto;
}

::view-transition-old(root),
::view-transition-new(root) {
  animation: none;
  mix-blend-mode: normal;
  display: block;
}

The List of Chrome DevRel team members demo provides a basic set of team profile pages, and demonstrates how to use the pageswap and pagereveal events to customize the outgoing and inbound animations of a cross-document view transition based on the "from" and "to" URLs.

The pageswap event listener looks as follows. This sets view transition names on the elements on the outbound page that link to the profile pages. When navigating from the home page to a profile page, custom animations are provided only for the linked element that is clicked in each case.

window.addEventListener("pageswap", async (e) => {
  // Only run this if an active view transition exists
  if (e.viewTransition) {
    const currentUrl = e.activation.from?.url
      ? new URL(e.activation.from.url)
      : null;
    const targetUrl = new URL(e.activation.entry.url);

    // Going from profile page to homepage
    // ~> The big img and title are the ones!
    if (isProfilePage(currentUrl) && isHomePage(targetUrl)) {
      // Set view-transition-name values on the elements to animate
      document.querySelector(`#detail main h1`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "name";
      document.querySelector(`#detail main img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "avatar";

      // Remove view-transition-names after snapshots have been taken
      // Stops naming conflicts resulting from the page state persisting in BFCache
      await e.viewTransition.finished;
      document.querySelector(`#detail main h1`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
      document.querySelector(`#detail main img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
    }

    // Going to profile page
    // ~> The clicked items are the ones!
    if (isProfilePage(targetUrl)) {
      const profile = extractProfileNameFromUrl(targetUrl);

      // Set view-transition-name values on the elements to animate
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} span`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "name";
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "avatar";

      // Remove view-transition-names after snapshots have been taken
      // Stops naming conflicts resulting from the page state persisting in BFCache
      await e.viewTransition.finished;
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} span`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
    }
  }
});

The pagereveal event listener looks as follows. This works in a similar way to the pageswap event listener, although bear in mind that here we are customizing the "to" animation, for page elements on the new page.

window.addEventListener("pagereveal", async (e) => {
  // If the "from" history entry does not exist, return
  if (!navigation.activation.from) return;

  // Only run this if an active view transition exists
  if (e.viewTransition) {
    const fromUrl = new URL(navigation.activation.from.url);
    const currentUrl = new URL(navigation.activation.entry.url);

    // Went from profile page to homepage
    // ~> Set VT names on the relevant list item
    if (isProfilePage(fromUrl) && isHomePage(currentUrl)) {
      const profile = extractProfileNameFromUrl(fromUrl);

      // Set view-transition-name values on the elements to animate
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} span`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "name";
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "avatar";

      // Remove names after snapshots have been taken
      // so that we're ready for the next navigation
      await e.viewTransition.ready;
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} span`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
      document.querySelector(`#${profile} img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
    }

    // Went to profile page
    // ~> Set VT names on the main title and image
    if (isProfilePage(currentUrl)) {
      // Set view-transition-name values on the elements to animate
      document.querySelector(`#detail main h1`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "name";
      document.querySelector(`#detail main img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "avatar";

      // Remove names after snapshots have been taken
      // so that we're ready for the next navigation
      await e.viewTransition.ready;
      document.querySelector(`#detail main h1`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
      document.querySelector(`#detail main img`).style.viewTransitionName =
        "none";
    }
  }
});

Before running a cross-document transition, you ideally want to wait until the state of the page stabilizes, relying on render blocking to ensure that:

1. Critical styles are loaded and applied.
2. Critical scripts are loaded and run.
3. The HTML visible for the user's initial view of the page has been parsed, so it renders consistently.

Styles are render blocked by default, and scripts can be render blocked using the blocking="render" attribute.

To ensure that your initial HTML has been parsed and will always render consistently before the transition animation runs, you can use <link rel="expect">. In this element, you include the following attributes:

• rel="expect" to indicate that you want to use this <link> element to render block some HTML on the page.
• href="#element-id" to indicate the ID of the element you want to render block.
• blocking="render" to render block the specified HTML.

Let's explore what this looks like with a simple example HTML document:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <!-- This will be render-blocking by default -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />

    <!-- Marking critical scripts as render blocking will
         ensure they're run before the view transition is activated -->
    <script async href="layout.js" blocking="render"></script>

    <!-- Use rel="expect" and blocking="render" to ensure the
         #lead-content element is visible and fully parsed before
         activating the transition -->
    <link rel="expect" href="#lead-content" blocking="render" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Page title</h1>
    <nav>...</nav>
    <div id="lead-content">
      <section id="first-section">The first section</section>
      <section>The second section</section>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

The result is that document rendering is blocked until the lead content <div> has been parsed, ensuring a consistent view transition.

You can also specify a media attribute on <link rel="expect"> elements. For example, you might want to block rendering on a smaller amount of content when loading the page on a narrow-screen device, than on a wide-screen device. This makes sense — on a mobile, less content will be visible when the page first loads than in the case of a desktop.

This could be achieved with the following HTML:

<link
  rel="expect"
  href="#lead-content"
  blocking="render"
  media="screen and (min-width: 641px)" />
<link
  rel="expect"
  href="#first-section"
  blocking="render"
  media="screen and (max-width: 640px)" />