vercel-labs/react-view-transitions

React View Transitions

Animate between UI states using the browser's native document.startViewTransition. Declare what with <ViewTransition>, trigger when with startTransition / useDeferredValue / Suspense, control how with CSS classes. Unsupported browsers skip animations gracefully.

When to Animate

Every <ViewTransition> should communicate a spatial relationship or continuity. If you can't articulate what it communicates, don't add it.

Implement all applicable patterns from this list, in this order:

Priority	Pattern	What it communicates
1	Shared element (name)	"Same thing — going deeper"
2	Suspense reveal	"Data loaded"
3	List identity (per-item key)	"Same items, new arrangement"
4	State change (enter/exit)	"Something appeared/disappeared"
5	Route change (page-level)	"Going to a new place"

This is an implementation order, not a "pick one" list. Implement every pattern that fits the app. Only skip a pattern if the app has no use case for it.

Choosing Animation Style

Context	Animation	Why
Hierarchical navigation (list → detail)	Type-keyed nav-forward / nav-back	Communicates spatial depth
Lateral navigation (tab-to-tab)	Bare <ViewTransition> (fade) or default="none"	No depth to communicate
Suspense reveal	enter/exit string props	Content arriving
Revalidation / background refresh	default="none"	Silent — no animation needed

Reserve directional slides for hierarchical navigation (list → detail) and ordered sequences (prev/next photo, carousel, paginated results). For ordered sequences, the direction communicates position: "next" slides from right, "previous" from left. Lateral/unordered navigation (tab-to-tab) should not use directional slides — it falsely implies spatial depth.

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Availability

• Next.js: Do not install react@canary — the App Router already bundles React canary internally. ViewTransition works out of the box. npm ls react may show a stable-looking version; this is expected.
• Without Next.js: Install react@canary react-dom@canary (ViewTransition is not in stable React).
• Browser support: Chromium 125+ (React needs the v2 object form of startViewTransition), Firefox 144+, Safari 18.2+. Graceful degradation on unsupported browsers.

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Implementation Workflow

When adding view transitions to an existing app, follow references/implementation.md step by step. Start with the audit — do not skip it. Use references/css-recipes.md for the applicable CSS and adapt it to the app.

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Core Concepts

The <ViewTransition> Component

import { ViewTransition } from 'react';

<ViewTransition>
  <Component />
</ViewTransition>

React auto-assigns a unique view-transition-name and calls document.startViewTransition behind the scenes. Never call startViewTransition yourself.

Animation Triggers

Trigger	When it fires
enter	<ViewTransition> first inserted during a Transition
exit	<ViewTransition> first removed during a Transition
update	DOM mutations inside a <ViewTransition>, or the boundary itself changing size/position due to an immediate sibling. With nested VTs, mutation applies to the innermost one
share	Named VT unmounts and another with same name mounts in the same Transition

Only startTransition, useDeferredValue, or Suspense activate VTs. Regular setState does not animate.

Critical Placement Rule

<ViewTransition> only activates enter/exit if it appears before any DOM nodes:

// Works
<ViewTransition enter="auto" exit="auto">
  <div>Content</div>
</ViewTransition>

// Broken — div wraps the VT, suppressing enter/exit
<div>
  <ViewTransition enter="auto" exit="auto">
    <div>Content</div>
  </ViewTransition>
</div>

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Styling with View Transition Classes

Props

Values: "auto" (browser cross-fade), "none" (disabled), "class-name" (custom CSS), or { [type]: value } for type-specific animations.

<ViewTransition default="none" enter="slide-in" exit="slide-out" share="morph" />

If default is "none", all triggers are off unless explicitly listed.

CSS Pseudo-Elements

• ::view-transition-old(.class) — outgoing snapshot
• ::view-transition-new(.class) — incoming snapshot
• ::view-transition-group(.class) — container
• ::view-transition-image-pair(.class) — old + new pair

See references/css-recipes.md for ready-to-use animation recipes.

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Transition Types

Tag transitions with addTransitionType so VTs can pick different animations based on context. Call it multiple times to stack types — different VTs in the tree react to different types:

startTransition(() => {
  addTransitionType('nav-forward');
  addTransitionType('select-item');
  router.push('/detail/1');
});

Pass an object to map types to CSS classes. Works on enter, exit, and share:

<ViewTransition
  enter={{ 'nav-forward': 'slide-from-right', 'nav-back': 'slide-from-left', default: 'none' }}
  exit={{ 'nav-forward': 'slide-to-left', 'nav-back': 'slide-to-right', default: 'none' }}
  share={{ 'nav-forward': 'morph-forward', 'nav-back': 'morph-back', default: 'morph' }}
  default="none"
>
  <Page />
</ViewTransition>

enter and exit don't have to be symmetric. For example, fade in but slide out directionally:

<ViewTransition
  enter={{ 'nav-forward': 'fade-in', 'nav-back': 'fade-in', default: 'none' }}
  exit={{ 'nav-forward': 'nav-forward', 'nav-back': 'nav-back', default: 'none' }}
  default="none"
>

TypeScript: ViewTransitionClassPerType requires a default key in the object.

For apps with multiple pages, extract the type-keyed VT into a reusable wrapper:

export function DirectionalTransition({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return (
    <ViewTransition
      enter={{ 'nav-forward': 'nav-forward', 'nav-back': 'nav-back', default: 'none' }}
      exit={{ 'nav-forward': 'nav-forward', 'nav-back': 'nav-back', default: 'none' }}
      default="none"
    >
      {children}
    </ViewTransition>
  );
}

router.back() and Browser Back Button

router.back() and the browser's back/forward buttons carry no transition types, so type-keyed animations (directional slides) resolve to their default and don't play — untyped shared-element morphs still apply. For typed animations, use router.push() with an explicit URL.

Types and Suspense

Types are available during navigation but not during subsequent Suspense reveals (separate transitions, no type). Use type maps for page-level enter/exit; use simple string props for Suspense reveals.

Shared Element Readiness

A shared element transition can pair elements only when both the old and new views are rendered in the same Transition. If incoming content suspends, only its fallback exists for that update; the resolved