Web/API/Animation/startTime

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

The Animation.startTime property of the Animation interface is a double-precision floating-point value which indicates the scheduled time when an animation's playback should begin.

An animation’s start time is the time value of its DocumentTimeline when its target KeyframeEffect is scheduled to begin playback. An animation’s start time is initially unresolved (meaning that it's null because it has no value).

Syntax

var animationStartedWhen = Animation.startTime;

Animation.startTime = newStartTime;

Value

A floating-point number representing the current time in milliseconds, or null if no time is set. You can read this value to determine what the start time is currently set at, and you can change this value to make the animation start at a different time.

Examples

In the Running on Web Animations API example, the we can sync all new animated cats by giving them all the same startTime as the original running cat:

var catRunning = document.getElementById ("withWAAPI").animate(keyframes, timing);

/* A function that makes new cats. */
function addCat(){
  var newCat = document.createElement("div");
  newCat.classList.add("cat");
  return newCat;
}

/* This is the function that adds a cat to the WAAPI column */
function animateNewCatWithWAAPI() {
  // make a new cat
  var newCat = addCat();

  // animate said cat with the WAAPI's "animate" function
  var newAnimationPlayer = newCat.animate(keyframes, timing);

  // set the animation's start time to be the same as the original .cat#withWAAPI
  newAnimationPlayer.startTime = catRunning.startTime;

  // Add the cat to the pile.
  WAAPICats.appendChild(newCat);
}

Reduced time precision

To offer protection against timing attacks and fingerprinting, the precision of animation.startTime might get rounded depending on browser settings. In Firefox, the privacy.reduceTimerPrecision preference is enabled by default and defaults to 20us in Firefox 59; in 60 it will be 2ms.

// reduced time precision (2ms) in Firefox 60
animation.startTime;
// 23.404
// 24.192
// 25.514
// ...


// reduced time precision with `privacy.resistFingerprinting` enabled
animation.startTime;
// 49.8
// 50.6
// 51.7
// ...

In Firefox, you can also enabled privacy.resistFingerprinting, the precision will be 100ms or the value of privacy.resistFingerprinting.reduceTimerPrecision.microseconds, whichever is larger.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Web AnimationsThe definition of 'Animation.startTime' in that specification.	Working Draft	Editor's 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
`startTime` Experimental'	Chrome Full support 39	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 48 Full support 48 No support 46 — 48 Disabled' Disabled' From version 46 until version 48 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `dom.animations-api.core.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE No support No	Opera Full support 26	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support 39	Chrome Android Full support 39	Firefox Android Full support 48 Full support 48 No support 46 — 48 Disabled' Disabled' From version 46 until version 48 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `dom.animations-api.core.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera Android Full support 26	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0

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.
User must explicitly enable this feature.': User must explicitly enable this feature.