Overview

Motion is the production animation library for React (previously published as framer-motion). Animations are declared as props on motion.* components: initial, animate, exit, whileHover, whileTap, whileInView, layout, layoutId and variants. Springs are the default for physical values, and transform and opacity animations run on the GPU. Version 14.0.0 was published on 2026-10-02; 12.x and 13.x code keeps working for the APIs shown here, but check the changelog if you relied on internal framer-motion APIs.

Instructions

Install and import

bash

npm install motion

tsx

import { motion, AnimatePresence } from "motion/react";

The old package framer-motion still exists, but new code should use motion and import from motion/react. Migrating means swapping the dependency and changing from "framer-motion" to from "motion/react".
Requires React 18.2 or newer.
Next.js App Router: components using motion need "use client" at the top of the file, or import import * as motion from "motion/react-client" so they can render inside server components.
Bundle size: the motion component is about 34 kB; use LazyMotion with the m component (import * as m from "motion/react-m") and domAnimation (+15 kB: animations, variants, exits, gestures) or domMax (+25 kB: adds drag and layout animations).
Outside React, import { animate, scroll } from "motion" provides the same engine for plain DOM; inside components, useAnimate returns a scope and an animate function for imperative sequences.

Accessibility

Wrap the app in <MotionConfig reducedMotion="user"> so transform and layout animations are disabled for people whose OS asks for reduced motion (opacity and colour animations are kept). useReducedMotion() returns the boolean for custom handling, for example setting a parallax y to 0.

Patterns

Basic Animations

tsx

import { motion, AnimatePresence } from "motion/react";

// Animate on mount
function FadeIn({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 20 }}     // Starting state
      animate={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}       // Target state
      transition={{ duration: 0.5, ease: "easeOut" }}
    >
      {children}
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Hover and tap interactions
function InteractiveCard({ title }: { title: string }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      className="card"
      whileHover={{ scale: 1.05, boxShadow: "0 10px 30px rgba(0,0,0,0.12)" }}
      whileTap={{ scale: 0.95 }}
      transition={{ type: "spring", stiffness: 300, damping: 20 }}
    >
      <h3>{title}</h3>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Exit animations
function NotificationList({ notifications }: { notifications: Notification[] }) {
  return (
    <AnimatePresence>
      {notifications.map((n) => (
        <motion.div
          key={n.id}
          initial={{ opacity: 0, x: 100 }}
          animate={{ opacity: 1, x: 0 }}
          exit={{ opacity: 0, x: -100, height: 0 }}  // Animate out!
          transition={{ type: "spring", damping: 25 }}
        >
          {n.message}
        </motion.div>
      ))}
    </AnimatePresence>
  );
}

Layout Animations

tsx

// Automatic layout animation
function ExpandableCard({ isExpanded, onClick, children }: Props) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      layout                               // Animate ANY layout change
      onClick={onClick}
      style={{
        width: isExpanded ? 400 : 200,
        height: isExpanded ? 300 : 100,
      }}
      transition={{ layout: { type: "spring", stiffness: 200 } }}
    >
      <motion.h3 layout="position">{/* Only animate position, not size */}</motion.h3>
      <AnimatePresence>
        {isExpanded && (
          <motion.div
            initial={{ opacity: 0 }}
            animate={{ opacity: 1 }}
            exit={{ opacity: 0 }}
          >
            {children}
          </motion.div>
        )}
      </AnimatePresence>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Shared layout animation (element moves between components)
function TabLayout({ activeTab }: { activeTab: string }) {
  return (
    <div className="tabs">
      {tabs.map((tab) => (
        <button key={tab.id} onClick={() => setActive(tab.id)}>
          {tab.label}
          {activeTab === tab.id && (
            <motion.div
              layoutId="activeTab"         // Same layoutId = shared animation
              className="underline"
              transition={{ type: "spring", stiffness: 500, damping: 30 }}
            />
          )}
        </button>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Scroll Animations

tsx

import { motion, useScroll, useTransform } from "motion/react";

function ParallaxHero() {
  const { scrollY } = useScroll();
  const y = useTransform(scrollY, [0, 500], [0, -150]);
  const opacity = useTransform(scrollY, [0, 300], [1, 0]);

  return (
    <motion.div style={{ y, opacity }} className="hero">
      <h1>Welcome</h1>
    </motion.div>
  );
}

// Scroll-triggered entrance
function ScrollReveal({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) {
  return (
    <motion.div
      initial={{ opacity: 0, y: 50 }}
      whileInView={{ opacity: 1, y: 0 }}  // Animate when in viewport
      viewport={{ once: true, margin: "-100px" }}
      transition={{ duration: 0.6 }}
    >
      {children}
    </motion.div>
  );
}

Staggered Children

tsx

const container = {
  hidden: { opacity: 0 },
  show: {
    opacity: 1,
    transition: { staggerChildren: 0.1 },
  },
};

const item = {
  hidden: { opacity: 0, y: 20 },
  show: { opacity: 1, y: 0 },
};

function StaggeredList({ items }: { items: { id: string; name: string }[] }) {
  return (
    <motion.ul variants={container} initial="hidden" animate="show">
      {items.map((i) => (
        <motion.li key={i.id} variants={item}>
          {i.name}
        </motion.li>
      ))}
    </motion.ul>
  );
}

Examples

Example 1: Animated notification stack

User request: "Make toast notifications slide in from the right and slide out when dismissed, without the list jumping."

Use the exit-animation pattern above and add mode="popLayout" to AnimatePresence so exiting items leave the layout flow, plus layout on each item so siblings glide into the gap:

tsx

<AnimatePresence mode="popLayout">
  {toasts.map((t) => (
    <motion.div key={t.id} layout
      initial={{ opacity: 0, x: 100 }} animate={{ opacity: 1, x: 0 }} exit={{ opacity: 0, x: 100 }}>
      {t.message}
    </motion.div>
  ))}
</AnimatePresence>

Result: new toasts slide in, dismissed ones slide out, remaining toasts move up smoothly. Keys must be stable ids, never array indexes.

Example 2: Scroll progress bar and reveal-on-scroll sections

User request: "Add a reading-progress bar at the top and fade in each section as it scrolls into view."

tsx

import { motion, useScroll, useSpring } from "motion/react";

export function ProgressBar() {
  const { scrollYProgress } = useScroll();
  const scaleX = useSpring(scrollYProgress, { stiffness: 120, damping: 30 });
  return <motion.div style={{ scaleX, transformOrigin: "0 0" }} className="fixed inset-x-0 top-0 h-1 bg-emerald-500" />;
}

Wrap each section in the ScrollReveal component above (whileInView, viewport={{ once: true }}). Result: a bar that fills as the page scrolls and sections that fade up once.

Guidelines

layout prop: add it to an element and size or position changes animate automatically. Use layout="position" on text children to avoid stretching, and layout on children of a resized parent to fix scale distortion. Scrollable ancestors need layoutScroll; fixed ancestors need layoutRoot. Wrap components that do not re-render together in LayoutGroup.
AnimatePresence: it must wrap the conditional, not be wrapped by it; direct children need unique, stable keys. Modes: sync (default), wait (enter after exit finishes), popLayout. initial={false} skips the first-render animation.
Springs: type: "spring" with stiffness (speed) and damping (bounce); a duration/bounce pair is easier to tune by feel.
Scroll: whileInView for entrance effects (with viewport={{ once: true }}), useScroll plus useTransform for scroll-linked effects. Prefer these over scroll listeners with setState.
Shared layout: the same layoutId on two elements animates between them (tab underlines, card-to-modal); make layoutIds unique per group.
Gestures: whileHover, whileTap, whileDrag, whileFocus; hover effects do not fire on touch.
Performance: animate transform and opacity; animating width, height or top forces layout, so use layout instead. Avoid re-rendering the parent per frame; use motion values (useMotionValue, useTransform) which update without renders.
Do not use for simple one-off hover colours (CSS transitions are lighter) or for server-only components without the client import noted above.

Motion (formerly Framer Motion)

Validation

Prove Motion (formerly Framer Motion) on your task

Getting Started

Example Prompts

Documentation