Toning down animations in Android

[GeoffreyA]

Good morning,

Not exactly PC related, but I thought I'd ask here, in case anyone knew the answer.

Earlier this week, I got a new phone; it runs Android 16 and One UI 8. My previous Galaxy used 11. Usually, when Android opens an app, there is a zooming animation, which, in my opinion, looks dreadful. On the old phone, I had altered some setting, hidden or otherwise, and got it to fade rather than zoom. Note that this is not related to the ubiquitous animation, transition, and duration scale developer settings.

I've been battling to find how I got rid of the zoom on the old phone. Today, on a family member's Android 10, I found that, in Settings > Advanced features, there is "Reduce animations." This does the trick, replacing the zoom with a fade. Unfortunately, the setting doesn't exist on both the Android 11 and 16 phones.

Does anyone know of a hidden setting or ADB command to replace app-opening zoom with a fade? Alternatively, what setting did Android 9/10's "Reduce animations" change behind the scenes?

[microchip8]

Go to Settings -> Developer options and tap on it 7 times. It will unlock hidden and debug options. In there you can change animation effects, among others.

[GeoffreyA]

Thanks, microchip. I've been playing around with those animation settings in Developer options, but they don't achieve what I was looking for. In the end, Lawnchair was the solution; its window animation is pleasing, and mechanically, it works similarly to One UI. As a bonus, they've got an excellent icon pack, Lawnicons, which are minimal and better looking than One UI 8's ugly ones.