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  1. Glossary
  2. /
  3. Loops & ambient motion

Pulse animation

Also called pulsing dot, ping animation, or live indicator

A soft, repeating beat or expanding ring that draws the eye to a live status, a new notification, or something that needs attention.

import { motion, useReducedMotion } from 'motion/react';

// One shared rhythm for the ring and the badge beat.
const BEAT = { duration: 1.6, repeat: Infinity };

export function StreamHeader({
  title,
  unread
}: {
  title: string;
  unread: number;
}) {
  const reduceMotion = useReducedMotion();

  return (
    <header className='flex items-center justify-between gap-4'>
      <h2 className='flex items-center gap-2 font-medium'>
        <span className='relative flex size-2'>
          {/* A ring grows out of the dot and fades: transform and opacity only. */}
          {!reduceMotion && (
            <motion.span
              aria-hidden
              animate={{ scale: [1, 2.5], opacity: [0.5, 0] }}
              transition={{ ...BEAT, ease: 'easeOut' }}
              className='absolute inset-0 rounded-full bg-emerald-500'
            />
          )}
          <span className='relative size-2 rounded-full bg-emerald-500' />
        </span>
        {title}
        <span className='text-xs font-normal text-emerald-600'>Live</span>
      </h2>
      <button
        type='button'
        className='relative rounded-full border px-3 py-1.5 text-sm'
      >
        Notifications
        {unread > 0 && (
          <motion.span
            // A quick swell at the start of each beat, then rest.
            animate={reduceMotion ? undefined : { scale: [1, 1.15, 1, 1] }}
            transition={{ ...BEAT, times: [0, 0.1, 0.25, 1] }}
            className='absolute -top-1.5 -right-1.5 grid min-w-5 place-items-center rounded-full bg-red-500 px-1 text-xs font-medium text-white'
          >
            {unread}
          </motion.span>
        )}
      </button>
    </header>
  );
}
Add a live indicator next to the stream title: an 8px green dot with a ring behind it that scales from 1 to 2.5 and fades from 50% opacity to 0 every 1.6s with an ease-out curve, looping. Give the unread badge on the bell icon a quick 1.15× scale beat on the same rhythm. Use only transform and opacity, and keep both still when prefers-reduced-motion is set.

Paste into Layerwise or any AI coding tool.

What is Pulse animation?

A pulse repeats a small change on a loop: a ring grows out of a dot and fades away, or a badge swells for a moment and settles. It reads as "something is happening here right now," which is why live streams, online indicators, and recording buttons use it.

Use it for states that are truly live or urgent: a broadcast in progress, a connected device, unread messages, or a new feature you want people to notice once. When many things pulse at once the signal disappears, so keep it to one element per screen when you can.

Animate only transform and opacity so the loop stays cheap. A ring that scales from 1 to about 2.5 while fading out over 1.5 to 2 seconds feels calm; under a second it starts to feel like an alarm. Pair the pulse with a label or color so the status is clear without motion, and stop the loop under prefers-reduced-motion.

In Tailwind, animate-ping is this expanding ring. animate-pulse is a different effect that gently fades opacity, and it's mostly used for skeleton screens.

Often confused with

Skeleton screen
A skeleton screen fades or shimmers gray placeholders while content loads. A pulse marks something that is live or new.

Related terms

All terms

Badge

A small rounded label that marks a status or a count, like New, Beta, Failed, or the red number on an inbox icon.

Looping animation

An animation that plays more than once, either a set number of times or forever, set in CSS with animation-iteration-count.

Glow effect

A soft halo of colored light around a button, card, or text, made with colored shadows or a blurred layer behind the element.

Reduced motion

An operating system setting that asks apps to minimize movement, which websites detect with the prefers-reduced-motion media query.

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Entrances & exits

  • Fade in
  • Slide in
  • Scale in
  • Pop in
  • Blur in
  • Reveal animation
  • Enter and exit animations

Timing & sequencing

  • Duration
  • Delay
  • Keyframes
  • Tweening
  • Stagger
  • Orchestration
  • Fill mode
  • Stepped animation
  • Looping animation
  • Yoyo animation

Easing

  • Easing
  • Linear easing
  • Ease-in
  • Ease-out
  • Ease-in-out
  • Cubic-bezier
  • Asymmetric easing
  • Overshoot easing

Springs & physics

  • Spring animation
  • Stiffness
  • Damping
  • Mass
  • Bounce
  • Velocity
  • Momentum
  • Interruptible animation
  • Rubber-banding

Transforms

  • Translate
  • Scale
  • Rotate
  • Skew
  • 3D flip
  • Perspective
  • Transform origin
  • Origin-aware animation

State transitions

  • Crossfade
  • Morph
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  • Layout animation
  • Height auto animation
  • Direction-aware transition
  • Continuity transition
  • Page transition
  • View Transitions API

Scroll effects

  • Scroll reveal
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Interaction feedback

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  • Magnetic button
  • Custom cursor
  • 3D tilt card
  • Spotlight card

Text effects

  • Typewriter effect
  • Text scramble
  • Split text animation
  • Text morph
  • Rotating words
  • Gradient text
  • Shimmer text
  • Number ticker
  • Tabular numbers
  • Underline animation

Loops & ambient motion

  • Marquee
  • Pulse animation
  • Float animation
  • Orbit animation
  • Idle animation
  • Particle background
  • Border beam
  • Confetti
  • Animated gradient

Visual effects

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Motion principles

  • Purposeful animation
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  • Follow-through
  • Squash and stretch
  • Perceived performance
  • Frequency of use
  • Spatial consistency
  • Reduced motion

Animation performance

  • Frame rate (FPS)
  • Jank
  • GPU acceleration
  • will-change
  • Layout thrashing

Layout

  • Hero section
  • Above the fold
  • Sticky header
  • Sidebar
  • Bento grid
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  • Avatar stack
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  • Spinner
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Visual styles

  • Glassmorphism
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