Animation.playState

This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The Animation.playState property of the Web Animations API returns and sets an enumerated value describing the playback state of an animation.

This property is read-only for CSS Animations and Transitions.

Syntax

var currentPlayState = Animation.playState;

Animation.playState = newState;

Value

idle
The current time of the animation is unresolved and there are no pending tasks.
running
The animation is running.
paused
The animation was suspended and the Animation.currentTime property is not updating.
finished
The animation has reached one of its boundaries and the Animation.currentTime property is not updating.

Previously, Web Animations defined a pending value to indicate that some asynchronous operation such as initiating playback was yet to complete. This is now indicated by the separate Animation.pending property.

Example

In the Growing/Shrinking Alice Game example, players can get an ending with Alice crying into a pool of tears. In the game, for performance reasons, the tears should only be animating when they're visible. So they must be paused as soon as they are animated like so:

// Setting up the tear animations

tears.forEach(function(el) {  
  el.animate(
    tearsFalling, 
    {
      delay: getRandomMsRange(-1000, 1000), // randomized for each tear
      duration: getRandomMsRange(2000, 6000), // randomized for each tear
      iterations: Infinity,
      easing: 'cubic-bezier(0.6, 0.04, 0.98, 0.335)'
    });
  el.pause();
});


// Play the tears falling when the ending needs to be shown.

tears.forEach(function(el) {
  el.play();
});


// Reset the crying tears animations and pause them.

tears.forEach(function(el) {  
  el.pause();
  el.currentTime = 0;
});

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Animations
The definition of 'playState' in that specification.
Working Draft Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

DesktopMobile
ChromeEdgeFirefoxInternet ExplorerOperaSafariAndroid webviewChrome for AndroidFirefox for AndroidOpera for AndroidSafari on iOSSamsung Internet
playState
Experimental
Chrome Full support 39
Notes
Full support 39
Notes
Notes Before Chrome 50/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50/Opera 37, it shows paused.
Edge Full support ≤79Firefox Full support 48
Notes
Full support 48
Notes
Notes Prior to Firefox 59, this property returned pending for Animations with incomplete asynchronous operations but as of Firefox 59 this is indicated by the separate Animation.pending property. This reflects recent changes to the specification.
No support 46 — 48
Disabled
Disabled From version 46 until version 48 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.animations-api.core.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
IE No support NoOpera Full support 26
Notes
Full support 26
Notes
Notes Before Chrome 50/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50/Opera 37, it shows paused.
Safari No support NoWebView Android Full support 39
Notes
Full support 39
Notes
Notes Before Chrome 50/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50/Opera 37, it shows paused.
Chrome Android Full support 39
Notes
Full support 39
Notes
Notes Before Chrome 50/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50/Opera 37, it shows paused.
Firefox Android Full support 48
Notes
Full support 48
Notes
Notes Prior to Firefox 59, this property returned pending for Animations with incomplete asynchronous operations but as of Firefox 59 this is indicated by the separate Animation.pending property. This reflects recent changes to the specification.
No support 46 — 48
Disabled
Disabled From version 46 until version 48 (exclusive): this feature is behind the dom.animations-api.core.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.
Opera Android Full support 26
Notes
Full support 26
Notes
Notes Before Chrome 50/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Chrome 50/Opera 37, it shows paused.
Safari iOS No support NoSamsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
Notes
Full support 4.0
Notes
Notes Before Samsung Internet 5.0/Opera 37, this property returned idle for an animation that had not yet started. Starting with Samsung Internet 5.0/Opera 37, it shows paused.

Legend

Full support
Full support
No support
No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
See implementation notes.
See implementation notes.
User must explicitly enable this feature.
User must explicitly enable this feature.

See also