fix: Animation: Many Pages: The displayed animation cannot be stopped or paused

[TaduJR]

Explanation of Change

This PR adds support for the system's "Reduce Motion" accessibility setting to disable Lottie animations throughout the app, addressing WCAG 2.2.2 (Pause, Stop, Hide) compliance.

Fixed Issues

$ #77157
PROPOSAL: #77157 (comment)

Tests

Prerequisites

• iOS: Settings → Accessibility → Motion → Reduce Motion → ON
• Android: Settings → Accessibility → Remove animations → ON
• macOS: System Settings → Accessibility → Display → Reduce motion → ON
• Windows: Settings → Accessibility → Visual effects → Animation effects → OFF

Sign In Page (Native)

1. Enable "Reduce Motion" on your device
2. Open the Expensify app (sign out if needed)
3. Navigate to the Sign In page
4. Expected: The hands illustration is visible but paused (showing first frame, not animating)
5. Disable "Reduce Motion" on your device
6. Reopen the app
7. Expected: The hands animation is now visible and playing

Sign In Page (Web)

1. Enable "Reduce Motion" on your OS
2. Open the Expensify app in a browser
3. Navigate to the Sign In page
4. Expected: The hands illustration is visible but paused (showing first frame, not animating)
5. Disable "Reduce Motion" on your OS
6. Refresh the page
7. Expected: The hands animation is now visible and playing

Settings Pages (Native only — these pages use static SVGs on web)

1. Sign in to the app
2. Enable "Reduce Motion" on your device
3. Navigate to the following pages and verify illustrations are visible but animations are paused (first frame shown, not animating):
   • Settings → Preferences
   • Settings → Security
   • Settings → About
   • Settings → Troubleshoot
   • Settings → Save the World
   • Settings → Expense rules (empty state)
   • Workspaces (when no workspaces exist)
4. Disable "Reduce Motion" on your device
5. Reopen the app
6. Expected: Lottie animations are now visible and playing on all pages

Runtime Toggle (Dynamic Update)

1. Open the app with "Reduce Motion" disabled
2. Navigate to the Sign In page or any native Settings page with a Lottie animation
3. Verify the animation is visible and playing
4. Without closing the app, enable "Reduce Motion" in device settings
5. Return to the app
6. Expected: The animation should pause (first frame still visible, but not animating)

Other pages to verify (with Reduce Motion enabled)

• On Save the world - animation paused, illustration visible

• On Reports - animation paused, illustration visible

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

QA Steps

// TODO: These must be filled out, or the issue title must include "[No QA]."

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
  • I added steps for local testing in the Tests section
  • I added steps for the expected offline behavior in the Offline steps section
  • I added steps for Staging and/or Production testing in the QA steps section
  • I added steps to cover failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
  • I tested this PR with a High Traffic account against the staging or production API to ensure there are no regressions (e.g. long loading states that impact usability).
• I included screenshots or videos for tests on all platforms
• I ran the tests on all platforms & verified they passed on:
  • Android: Native
  • Android: mWeb Chrome
  • iOS: Native
  • iOS: mWeb Safari
  • MacOS: Chrome / Safari
  • MacOS: Desktop
• I verified there are no console errors (if there's a console error not related to the PR, report it or open an issue for it to be fixed)
• I verified there are no new alerts related to the canBeMissing param for useOnyx
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  • I verified that any callback methods that were added or modified are named for what the method does and never what callback they handle (i.e. toggleReport and not onIconClick)
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  • I verified that any new or modified comments were clear, correct English, and explained "why" the code was doing something instead of only explaining "what" the code was doing.
  • I verified any copy / text shown in the product is localized by adding it to src/languages/* files and using the translation method
    • If any non-english text was added/modified, I used JaimeGPT to get English > Spanish translation. I then posted it in #expensify-open-source and it was approved by an internal Expensify engineer. Link to Slack message:
  • I verified all numbers, amounts, dates and phone numbers shown in the product are using the localization methods
  • I verified any copy / text that was added to the app is grammatically correct in English. It adheres to proper capitalization guidelines (note: only the first word of header/labels should be capitalized), and is either coming verbatim from figma or has been approved by marketing (in order to get marketing approval, ask the Bug Zero team member to add the Waiting for copy label to the issue)
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• I tested other components that can be impacted by my changes (i.e. if the PR modifies a shared library or component like Avatar, I verified the components using Avatar are working as expected)
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  • The file has a description of what it does and/or why is needed at the top of the file if the code is not self explanatory
• If a new CSS style is added I verified that:
  • A similar style doesn't already exist
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• If the PR modifies code that runs when editing or sending messages, I tested and verified there is no unexpected behavior for all supported markdown - URLs, single line code, code blocks, quotes, headings, bold, strikethrough, and italic.
• If the PR modifies a generic component, I tested and verified that those changes do not break usages of that component in the rest of the App (i.e. if a shared library or component like Avatar is modified, I verified that Avatar is working as expected in all cases)
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  • I verified that all the inputs inside a form are aligned with each other.
  • I added Design label and/or tagged @Expensify/design so the design team can review the changes.
• If a new page is added, I verified it's using the ScrollView component to make it scrollable when more elements are added to the page.
• I added unit tests for any new feature or bug fix in this PR to help automatically prevent regressions in this user flow.
• If the main branch was merged into this PR after a review, I tested again and verified the outcome was still expected according to the Test steps.

Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

Screen_Recording_20260131_144840_New.Expensify.Dev.mp4

Android: mWeb Chrome

Screen_Recording_20260131_142246_Chrome.mp4

iOS: Native

iOS-Native.mp4

iOS: mWeb Safari

iOS-Safari.mp4

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

Screen.Recording.2026-01-31.at.2.51.35.in.the.afternoon.mov

[melvin-bot]

@jjcoffee Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/components/FeatureTrainingModal.tsx	87.05% <100.00%> (+0.31%)	⬆️
src/components/Icon/chunks/illustrations.chunk.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
src/components/Section/index.tsx	92.00% <ø> (ø)
src/libs/Accessibility/index.ts	96.29% <100.00%> (+3.98%)	⬆️
...useSaveTheWorldSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...utPage/useAboutSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
.../usePreferencesSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...ecuritySettingsSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...useTroubleshootSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
...tPage/useWalletSectionIllustration/index.native.ts	0.00% <ø> (ø)
... and 11 more
... and 17 files with indirect coverage changes

[joekaufmanexpensify]

No product considerations, removing my review

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[jjcoffee]

@dubielzyk-expensify From your comment here, I don't think you'd be expecting the illustration to be hidden altogether when reduced motion is enabled?

[dubielzyk-expensify]

No, never hidden, but paused when reduced motion is enabled

[jjcoffee]

@TaduJR Sorry I missed in your proposal that you were hiding the animations, we just want to pause them instead. Or was there a reason why you were suggesting to hide them?

[TaduJR]

@jjcoffee

Thanks for the feedback!

Sorry I missed in your proposal that you were hiding the animations

My initial proposal was to pause the animations.

Or was there a reason why you were suggesting to hide them?

But I migrated to hide and forgot to comment if there was any suggestion from the product team.

Here's the reasoning behind the current approach:

1. WCAG 2.2.2 compliance - The success criterion explicitly states https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/pause-stop-hide.html as valid options. Hiding is a conformant approach.
2. Reduced Cognitive Load: For users with ADHD or Autism, even a "paused" complex graphic can still be visually cluttered. Removing unnecessary visual elements simplifies the interface. So its Maximum accessibility for ideal for people with severe vestibular disorders or ADHD who need a completely "still" environment.
3. Consistency across illustration types - The Section component handles both Lottie animations AND static SVG illustrations. Hiding works uniformly for both, whereas "pause" only makes sense for animated content.

I can update the implementation to:

• Pause Lottie animations (using autoPlay={!isReduceMotionEnabled})
• Keep SVG illustrations visible (they're static anyway)

Let me know if you'd like me to make this change cc: @dubielzyk-expensify

References:

https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/pause-stop-hide.html

• Requires a mechanism for users to pause, stop, or hide moving/animated content
• All three options (pause, stop, hide) are valid ways to conform

Appt.org (React Native specific)

https://appt.org/en/docs/react-native/samples/reduced-animations

• States: "You should provide functionality to pause, stop or hide content which moves, blinks or scrolls automatically."

[TaduJR]

Hey @jjcoffee

Sorry I should have made it draft, I am discovering other animations on the codebase.

[TaduJR]

It's ready for re-review @jjcoffee

[TaduJR]

@codex review

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[jjcoffee]

LGTM!

[TaduJR]

Friendly Bump @aldo-expensify on this one.

Thanks!

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