If you’re using a not-so-speedy Android device, turning off the animations will improve your device’s performance. If you’re using a speedy device, speeding up animations, or turning them off completely, will make switching between apps and screens seem almost instantaneous. However, turning off animations completely may cause bugs in some apps. If that happens to you, speed up the animations to the fastest level, which is the lowest number.
Animations also drain the battery on your device faster. So, if you don’t notice any problems after turning off animations, you can save battery life by leaving them off until you need them.
Open the Settings app, if it’s not already open, by swiping down from the top of the screen once (or twice, depending on the brand of device you’re using) and tapping the Settings (gear) icon.
To speed up, slow down, or disable the animations on your Android device, the Developer options have to be available. Scroll to the bottom of the list in the left pane of the Settings app. If you don’t see the Developer options item, either before or after the About device item (depending on the brand of your device), you need to enable the Developer options. Once that’s done, return to the main Settings screen, scroll to the bottom, and tap “Developer options“.
Make sure the Developer options are on. If not, tap the slider button to turn them on.
The speed of the Android device animations are controlled by the “Window animation scale”, “Transition animation scale”, and “Animator duration scale” settings. The lower the number for each of these settings, the faster the animation and the faster your device will respond.
What do these animation values do?
- “Window animation scale” controls the speed at which app windows open and close.
- “Transition animation scale” controls the speed at which you can switch between apps.
- “Animator duration scale” controls all the smaller in-app animations, such as tapping menus and buttons.
Lower numbers for these values will improve the speed at which these tasks occur. However, the window and transition animations will not look as pretty with these settings at lower values or when they are off completely. So you must decide whether you want a faster phone or a prettier phone – you can’t have both.
Tap any of the animation settings to change its value. If you don’t want to turn the animations off, but you want them to happen as fast as possible, select the “Animation scale 0.5x” option. Turn off the currently selected animation type completely by selecting “Animation is off“. If you don’t notice any difference after changing the “Animator duration scale” value, you may have to reboot your device for the setting to take effect.
Remember, if you turn off the animations completely and then experience problems, set the animations to “Animation scale 0.5x“.
You must keep Developer options enabled to keep the animations at the adjusted settings or keep them off. When you turn off Developer options, or remove it from the Settings app, the animation settings will return to the default value of 1x.
Setting the animation scale to 10x could be useful if you’re trying to take a screenshot of a transition in an app, switching windows, or other small animations in apps.
What settings do you use for animations? Have you turned off the animations and experienced problems with some apps? If so, which apps and what types of problems? Let us know in the comments.