The WordPress Performance Team has released an experimental plugin that increases the perceived loading speed of web pages without the performance issues and accessibility tradeoffs associated with Single Page Applications (SPAs). The announcement was made by Felix Arntz, a member of the WordPress Performance Team and a Google software engineer.
Plugins released by the WordPress Performance Team are released so that users can play around and test with a new performance enhancement before the new feature is considered for inclusion into the WordPress core. Using these plugins provides a way to receive advanced performance improvements before a decision is made as to whether to integrate the improvements into WordPress itself.
The View Transitions plugin brings smooth, native browser-powered animations to WordPress page loads, mimicking the feel of Single Page Applications (SPAs) without requiring a full rebuild or custom JavaScript. Once the WordPress plugin is activated, it replaces the default hard reload between pages with a fluid animated transition effect, like a fade or slide, depending on how you configure it. This improves the visual flow of navigation across the site and increases the perceived loading speed for site visitors.
The plugin works out of the box with most themes, and users can customize the behavior through the admin user interface under Settings > Reading. Animations can be set using selectors and presets, with support for things like headers, post titles, and featured images to persist or animate across views.
According to the announcement:
“You can customize the default animation, and the selectors for the default view transition names for both global and post-specific elements. While this means the customization options are limited via the UI, it still allows you to play around with different configurations via UI, and likely for the majority of sites these are the most relevant parameters to customize anyways.
Keep in mind that this UI is only supplemental, and it only exists for easy exploration in the plugin. The recommended way to customize is via add_theme_support in your site’s WordPress theme.
…For the default-animation, a few animations are available by default. Additionally, the plugin provides an API to register additional animations, each of which encompasses a unique identifier, some configuration values, a CSS stylesheet, and optional aliases.”
The new WordPress plugin is optimized for block themes but designed to work broadly across all WordPress sites.
The page transitions are supported by all modern browsers, however it will degrade gracefully in older unsupported browsers by falling back to standard navigation without breaking anything.
The main point is that the plugin makes WordPress sites feel more modern and app-like—without the complexity or downsides of SPAs.
Read the announcement on Felix Arntz’s blog:
Introducing the View Transitions Plugin for WordPress
Download the experimental WordPress Performance Team plugin here:
View Transitions WordPress Plugin
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
