Cross-posted from my blog. The original, with any updates, lives on fabwaseem.com .

React View Transitions animate UI changes with the browser's View Transition API, declaratively. You wrap elements in <ViewTransition> , and React animates them when they enter, exit, update or move between pages. They became stable in React 19.3 on September 9, 2026, and Next.js 16.4 ships React 19.3, so they work in the App Router with no configuration.

I built a small Next.js 16.4.2 app with the four main patterns: a shared-element morph, a Suspense reveal, directional slides and a tab animation with addTransitionType . Then I recorded every transition in headless Chrome 155 to see what actually fires. Most of it behaves as documented. Browser back and forward do not, so that gets its own section below.

What are React View Transitions?

React View Transitions are the <ViewTransition> component and the addTransitionType function, stable since React 19.3.…