Disable animations

[mr-cheffy]

What feature would you like to see?

I want an option to disable animations. Animations sometimes can be annoying and reducing performance cost is a good thing.

What platform are you seeing the problem on?

Linux

Additional context

No response

~ Created automatically from issue: #465

[antiquealive]

second this. on my windows, when on enable zen compact mode, aka autohide side bar, hovering mouse to show the tabbar causes 4.5% gpu spike, kind of unnecessary. maybe animation is not the culprit, not sure.

[velaar]

@antiquealive Thank you so much for posting the update! If anyone else is looking - I did the mod via userChrome.css in chrome folder in the profile folder and it works as expected.

[ahmedelgabri]

temp sol. * { animation: none !important; transition: none !important; }

Unfortunately, this breaks glance, I wonder if there is a better way without breaking glance?

[standerksen]

Does not work for workspace switching, unfortunately.

[volkmnv]

I use only * { animation: none !important; } which doesn't remove all animations but I haven't noticed any problems so far. That makes it at least a little bit better.

[BenjaminAlbertR]

Hey, I am not a programmer. Where do I enter * { animation: none !important; } as the bookmarks bar is really slow on popup. And I want to fix it.

[BitBernd]

I switched to Zen to be more productive, animations just slow me down a lot.
Please add the option to disable all animations.

[standerksen]

This should definitely be an option, I'm surprised it isn't. Another scenario where this is useful is switching workspaces using hotkeys. Currently we have to wait for the animation to finish before we can switch to the next. This is really annoying when you quickly want to switch two or three workspaces over.

[11Spades]

I'd also love to see this feature. I value the responsiveness of my software very highly, and while Zen's animations are nice, I'd much prefer to have as close to an instantaneous response to my inputs as possible.

[ajpocus]

Agreed, I would also like to see this feature and I'll add that the media player animation in particular is distracting -- my eye keeps catching it in my peripheral vision while I'm trying to browse.

[phannawich]

I also would love to see this feature, I don't like the animation when switching workspace. If I can disable it, would be nice.

[Sabreclaw]

Thank you for the amazing browser itself! I would definitely love to see this feature, if possible even contribute in it.

[Dalai-]

Surprised to find there isn't an option for this. I was looking in about:config for one, but the options there seem unrelated.

[yunidh]

bumping this issue cause still no update

[ckx]

I am loving most everything about Zen, but after combing through the settings & about:config I can't figure out how to disable animations for stuff like:

• "Pop-up" animations, e.g. when pressing "..." for the menu, or opening ublock origin's menu.
• Bouncy animation when selecting a tab
• Workspace switching

These adversely affect responsiveness and add unnecessary distraction, both huge factors for me, so I may have to hold-off on fully transitioning to Zen for the moment.

[tapafon]

Original Firefox does respect "Accessibility->Visual effects->Animation effects" setting in Windows or similar setting in KDE on Linux. Zen only does it partially (new animations introduced by Zen don't respect that setting).
I prefer having little or no animations system-wide. Zen ruins it (especially bouncy animation when selecting a tab, especially when working via RDP/VNC).

[p8128n]

Any update on a way to disable these animations. I would think this is a very simple code change. I frequently jump between multiple work spaces in succession and this really slows things down to the point of being a productivity blocker. I'm holding off on using Zen full time due to this feature alone.

[zuble]

about:config -> "zen.view"

zen.view.compact.toolbar-flash-popup false   # <--- no sidebar show when tab_switch@compact
zen.view.compact.toolbar-hide-after-hover.duration 200 
zen.view.compact.animate-sidebar false

[Clam-]

?_?

[zuble]

yy , got excited for not having delay/sidebar when switching tabs

there's still animations all over :(

[brimwats]

The URLbar animaltions are noticably laggy and distracting on my computer and make me kind of nauseous.

[ysomad]

Would like to see the feature to disable every animation possible. Would be a game changer for a lot of people

[idea90]

where is update?

[mr-cheffy]

Not exactly sure what animations there are in zen to be disabled? Specially since some people mention the "urlbar"?

[mr-cheffy]

Oh I see, could you please open up an issue so it can be triaged? Something along the lines of "Urlbar switch animation doesn't respect reduce motion"

[Clam-]

Just to make sure I'm capturing it fairly: how do I make sure I am in "reduce motion" state?

[mr-cheffy]

Zen respects system settings, so setting "use reduce motion" (depends on the OS) should be enough

[Clam-]

Okay, I had to restart the browser after changing system setting for it to take effect. It now doesn't "pulse", but it still has glow animations. I'm assuming this doesn't quality as 'motion' for the reduce functionality. Here's what it looks like with that system setting:

Screen.Recording.2026-04-03.at.11.39.22.PM.mov

[mr-cheffy]

@brimwats 1.19.8b should fix some of your concerns, specially with the urlbar animation

[ckx]

This issue has still been blocking me from switching to Zen. I follow it closely and check the browser now and then. What I have here is by no means comprehensive—I just reinstalled Zen to record a couple more in addition to what's already posted here.

Workspace animations

I did not even have to use workspaces to see the animation as it is on the Welcome screen. But bonus for a hover-over animation on the "Space" text and a fade in on the menu.

Screencast_20260329_052301.webm

Menu slide-ins

I feel like there are a couple of these around.

Screencast_20260329_052125.webm

New tab animation

Animation when creating a new tab:

Screencast_20260329_051823.webm

Compare with vanilla firefox:

Screencast_20260329_053142.webm

Tab selection animation

I recall this one being bouncier in the past, but it still does an animation when selecting tabs that I would prefer to not be there.

Screencast_20260329_051703.webm

[borisv]

Please, don't make a good thing worse, let us turn off animations! I do not need and do not want flashing and animating effects. If you implement stuff, allow for turning it off - regardless the platform.

[vunhatchuong]

To clarify, I opened this issue because Zen is a browser that promotes the idea “Browsers should be tools that help you get things done, not distractions that keep you from your work.” Animations would be a non-issue if it were something like Opera GX - the gaming browserTM.

[bungadrum]

Can you disable the animation when opening a webpage in a floating window? Make it open and close instantly without any animations or effects.

animations.mp4

[mr-cheffy]

Could you please open up an issue about it? So it can be tracked. "Glance doesn't respect reduce motion"