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Disable the new message animations in WhatsApp

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Look for the toggle in Settings > Animations > Messages.

A recent WhatsApp update has introduced animations for messages – when you receive a message, it expands into place rather than just appearing on the screen. (It reminds me of the “Scale” effect for window minimisation on macOS.)

I find it distracting and it makes one of my friends dizzy, so I found the setting to turn it off:

  1. Select my head in the lower right hand corner to open the settings
  2. Select Appearance
  3. Select Animations
  4. Toggle off Messages

When toggled off, messages just appear at full size immediately, rather than animating in.

These steps are for the iPhone app. I assume a similar toggle exists in the Android app, but I haven’t checked.