Chat Bubbles Skeleton
Messaging placeholder with alternating grey and sky-tinted chat bubbles that shimmer in sequence.
- lines of CSS
- 40lines of CSS
- dependencies
- 0dependencies
- browser, for years
- Everybrowser, for years
- stops under reduced motion
- Guardedstops under reduced motion
Vue, Svelte, styled-components and Tailwind exports are part of Pro. HTML, CSS and React are free forever.
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 {
width: 220px;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
gap: 8px;
}
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m { display: flex; align-items: flex-end; gap: 6px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m.me { justify-content: flex-end; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .av { width: 20px; height: 20px; border-radius: 50%; flex: none; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m b { height: 26px; border-radius: 12px 12px 12px 3px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(1) b { width: 130px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(3) b { width: 96px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m.me b { border-radius: 12px 12px 3px 12px; background-color: rgba(14,165,233,0.35); }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(2) b { width: 110px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(4) b { width: 70px; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .sk {
background: #1e293b;
background-image: linear-gradient(100deg, transparent 30%, rgba(255,255,255,0.08) 50%, transparent 70%);
background-size: 200% 100%;
animation: fx-v12-skl-chat-15106-shine 1.6s linear infinite;
}
@keyframes fx-v12-skl-chat-15106-shine { 0% { background-position: 150% 0; } 100% { background-position: -50% 0; } }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(2) .sk { animation-delay: 0.15s; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(3) .sk { animation-delay: 0.3s; }
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 .m:nth-child(4) .sk { animation-delay: 0.45s; }
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106,
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106::before,
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106::after,
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 *,
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 *::before,
.fx-v12-skl-chat-15106 *::after {
animation-duration: 1ms !important;
animation-iteration-count: 1 !important;
animation-delay: 0ms !important;
transition-duration: 1ms !important;
transition-delay: 0ms !important;
}
}<div class="fx-v12-skl-chat-15106">
<div class="m">
<i class="sk av"></i>
<b class="sk"></b>
</div>
<div class="m me">
<b class="sk"></b>
</div>
<div class="m">
<i class="sk av"></i>
<b class="sk"></b>
</div>
<div class="m me">
<b class="sk"></b>
</div>
</div>What do I do with this?
- Put
chat-bubbles-skeleton-15107.cssanywhere your page already loads CSS from — in Next.js that isapp/globals.css, or any stylesheet with a<link>in your HTML. - Then put the class on the element you want it on:
<button class="fx-v12-skl-chat-15106">. The CSS does nothing until a class name in it matches something on the page.
- Link the stylesheet, then paste the markup wherever you need it.
npx hoverlab add chat-bubbles-skeleton-15107What's included
- The markup and the stylesheet, in whichever framework you pick
- No runtime dependencies
Works with
- React
- Vue
- Svelte
- Tailwind
- styled-components
- Plain CSS
npx hoverlab add chat-bubbles-skeleton-15107
Or over MCP, from your editor's agent — no account needed.
License
Free to read, copy and install, for personal and non-commercial projects. Shipping it in client work or a paid product needs Pro ($79 once). The source lands in your repo and stops being ours — no attribution, nothing to upgrade.
Motion safety
Static estimate, read from the CSS
- Reduced motion
- Guarded
Ships a
prefers-reduced-motionblock, so the loop settles into its end state for visitors who ask for less motion. - What it animates
- Repaints
Animates
background-position. No reflow, but the browser repaints every frame, which is fine for one element and costly across many. - Flashing (WCAG 2.3.1)
- No flashing found
No repeating change in opacity, colour or brightness large enough to count as a flash.
- Layout shift (CLS)
- No shift expected
Nothing it animates moves or resizes the box in flow. A category from the CSS, not a measurement for this effect.
Every row is read from the shipped CSS. Only a figure marked measured came from a browser. Customizing the speed changes the timing, so recheck a customized copy. How it is computed
30 more effects in Skeletons & Shimmers
All of them free to read, copy and install — no account, no locked tiles, no watermarked preview. The whole catalog is open, and so are the API and the CLI.
Browse Skeletons & ShimmersShipping one commercially
Copying the code is free. Putting it in client work or a paid product is what Pro is for — the licence, not the access.
- A commercial licence for everything in the catalog
- Unlimited bundle exports, in Vue, Svelte and Tailwind
- One payment — no subscription, nothing to renew
7 variations of Chat Bubbles Skeleton
Finished looks, each one a position in the customizer above. Copy any of them, or open it and keep moving the sliders.