How to Stop App Icon Animations in Dock When Opening Mac Apps

How to Stop App Icon Animations in Dock When Opening Mac Apps

When you click an app icon in the Dock of Mac OS to launch an app, the apps Dock icon will animate with a little bounce as that application is opening. Additionally, when you launch any other application from Mac OS, the app icon will appear in the Dock and it too will animate with an up and down dance as the app launches.

The animated Dock icons have been around in Mac OS since the earliest days of Mac OS X, but some users may not want their app icons to animate or bounce in the Dock at all. With a simple settings adjustment, you can stop application icons from animating in the Dock in Mac OS, or if your Dock icons are currently not bouncing around, you can toggle a setting to get this feature to return again. A quick note: the animated bouncing dock icons are used as an indicator that a Mac app is opening.

When you turn off the ability for the app icons to bounce/dribble in the Dock, there is no visual indicator that an app is launching. For this reason, most Mac users should leave the Docks application icon animation feature enabled in Mac OS, though if you regularly you might not even notice whether this is turned off or on in the first place. Tired of seeing the app icons animated bounce around in the Dock when you open an app? Heres how to turn them off: With the animate on application open setting turned off, you will click on Dock icons to open them but there is no indicator the app is launching, it will just open (or not) without a visual indicator, a little bit like how apps open in iOS.

Of course you can re-enable the bouncing animated Dock icons at any time by returning to the default setting and simply going back to > System Preferences > Dock > and checking the setting for Animate opening applications to be enabled again. Most users like the visual indicator that an app is launching and thus should leave this setting turned on. If you simply turn the Docks application launching animation off, you will notice Dock icons may still bounce when an app needs your attention. Perhaps because there is an alert dialog, an error message, an installation has completed, or a task has finished.

The Dock animation bouncing indicator as a means of alerting you can also be disabled, but that is accomplished . If you turn that feature off however, the apps will have no means of notifying you of an alert or behavior that requires your attention, so thats generally not recommended for most users either. While youre messing around with the Dock, you might also enjoy some other little tweaks like or , or .