Web/API/Animation/persist

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

The persist() method of the Web Animations API's Animation interface explicitly persists an animation, when it would otherwise be removed due to the browser's Automatically removing filling animations behavior.

Syntax

animation.persist();

Parameters

None.

Return value

None.

Examples

In our simple [[../../../../../../../mdn.github.io/dom-examples/web-animations-api/replace-indefinite-animations|replace indefinite animations demo]], you can see the following code:

const divElem = document.querySelector('div');

document.body.addEventListener('mousemove', evt => {
  let anim = divElem.animate(
    { transform: `translate(${ evt.clientX}px, ${evt.clientY}px)` },
    { duration: 500, fill: 'forwards' }
  );

  anim.commitStyles();

  //anim.persist()

  anim.onremove = function() {
    console.log('Animation removed');
  }

  console.log(anim.replaceState);
});

Here we have a <div> element, and an event listener that fires the event handler code whenever the mouse moves. The event handler sets up an animation that animates the <div> element to the position of the mouse pointer. This could result in a huge animations list, which could create a memory leak. For this reason, modern browsers automatically remove overriding forward filling animations.

You can see the replaceState of the animation being logged at the end of the handler. This will be active for each animation by default, or persisted if the persist() call is uncommented.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Web AnimationsThe definition of 'persist()' in that specification.	Working Draft

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`persist` Experimental'	Chrome No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' Currently Chrome Canary only	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 75	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari Full support 13.1	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' Currently Chrome Canary only	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS Full support 13.4	Samsung Internet Android No support No

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.