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Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
New Member
September 29, 2026
Question

Smart Animate hover causes video to freeze in prototype

Hi Figma team,

I've noticed what seems to be a recurring issue with Smart Animate on hover interactions in prototypes.

For example, I have a component containing a video. On hover, the component transitions to another variant using Smart Animate, with a simple scale-down effect.

When previewing the prototype, the video plays normally, but as soon as the hover interaction is triggered, the video freezes instead of continuing to play during and after the animation.

The component does not have “Reset component state” enabled, so I would expect the video playback to remain uninterrupted when transitioning between variants.

I've noticed similar issues across several components using hover interactions combined with Smart Animate, not just this specific video example. It seems that triggering Smart Animate on hover can unexpectedly reset, freeze, or otherwise affect elements inside the component.

Expected behavior:
Smart Animate should animate the properties that change between variants while preserving the state and playback of unchanged elements, particularly video.

Actual behavior:
Triggering the hover interaction causes the video to freeze.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? Is this a known limitation or a prototype bug?

Thanks!

3 replies

Donkt
Figmate
Donkt
Figmate
October 1, 2026

Hi ​@Ada Lovelace! Thanks for flagging this!

 

To help narrow things down, could you let me know:

  1. Are you seeing this behavior in the browser, the desktop app, or both?
  2. If using the desktop app, which version are you running?
  3. Which prototype actions are active on the animation? Sometimes duplicate or conflicting actions can cause unexpected behavior.

 

If updating the app or disabling any unintended prototype actions do not resolve this, our Technical Quality team can also take a closer look. You can kick off a review of your file by filling out this secure form and including:

  • a link to the affected file
  • edit access granted to support-share@figma.com
  • a screen recording showing how the impacted components are set up (if possible, include the sidebars for extra context).
Ada Lovelace
Ada LovelaceAuthor
New Member
October 1, 2026

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. Here are some additional details:

  1. Are you seeing this behavior in the browser, the desktop app, or both?
    I’m experiencing the issue in both the browser and the desktop app.

  2. If using the desktop app, which version are you running?
    I’m currently using the latest version available. I hadn’t noticed any of these issues before the most recent update — everything was working correctly prior to that.

  3. Which prototype actions are active on the animation?
    I’ve actually identified two different issues involving Smart Animate:

Visual artifacts with opacity / blur
The artifact issue seems to occur whenever a layer or frame using opacity and/or blur effects is positioned above an image or video. During the Smart Animate transition, visual artifacts appear on the underlying image/video.

Video freezing on hover
This happens when a video is placed inside a component/frame with two variants, for example:

  • Default variant: scale 100%

  • Hover variant: scale 110%

  • Interaction: While hovering → Change to → Smart Animate

When hovering over the component in the prototype, the scale animation works, but the video itself freezes during the Smart Animate transition.

The component is not set to “Reset component state,” and the issue seems specifically related to Smart Animate. I’ve tested similar hover interactions and observed the same behavior in several instances.

Both behaviors appear to have started after the latest update, as these prototypes were working as expected before.

Best,
Alexis

Donkt
Figmate
Donkt
Figmate
October 5, 2026

Hi ​@Ada Lovelace,

Thank you for sharing this additional information!

To help move this forward, I’ve gone ahead and created a support ticket on your behalf so the team can review it.

For reference, your case number is #2171405.  Please continue the conversation directly in that ticket and share any additional context there, the support team is best equipped to assist with this.

Thanks for your patience while they take a closer look!

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