Skeleton

Skeletons are preview placeholders for components that haven't loaded yet, reducing load-time frustration.

Introduction

Skeletons provide users an expectation of what the UI looks like while data loads. It helps reducing the perception of long loading times while being a more interesting loading state to look at.

Basics

import Skeleton from '@mui/joy/Skeleton';

There are two methods of using the Skeleton component:

1. Masking a component: see the Avatar, Image and Typography examples. The Skeleton component will inherit their dimension which makes for a more predictable UI while also preventing layout shift when the loading is done.
2. Setting a custom width and height: see the Geometry and Text block examples. Use this for full control of the Skeleton size, ignoring its parent dimensions entirely. Be aware that this option can generate layout shift if the actual component the Skeleton is mimicking has a different size.

Customization

Loading

The Skeleton has the loading prop set to true by default.

Set it to false to hide the Skeleton component. If the Skeleton has children, they will be rendered instead.

Animation

Use the animation prop to control how the Skeleton component animates. The animation prop value can be one of the following:

• pulse (default): The background of the Skeleton fades in and out.
• wave: A wave animation flowing from left to right.
• false: Disable the animation entirely.

The demo below shows the wave animation:

To set the wave animation as the default for all Skeleton component instances, use the theme's default props:

import { CssVarsProvider, extendTheme } from '@mui/joy/styles';

const theme = extendTheme({
  components: {
    JoySkeleton: {
      defaultProps: {
        animation: 'wave',
      },
    },
  },
});

function App() {
  return (
    <CssVarsProvider theme={theme}>
      <Skeleton />{' '}
      {/* The Skeleton component will have the wave animation by default */}
    </CssVarsProvider>
  );
}

Avatar

Use the Avatar component to wrap the Skeleton when displaying an avatar.

Image

Use the AspectRatio component to wrap the Skeleton when displaying an image.

Inline with Typography

Insert the Skeleton between the Typography component and the text to display placeholder lines.

Geometry

To build a specific Skeleton shape, use the variant prop and choose between circular or rectangular. And to have it on a specific dimension, use the width and height props.

Text block

Use the variant="text" and level props to create a block of skeleton text that follows the theme's typography styles.

The level prop value can be a theme's typography-related token. The result of the skeleton text will have the same height as the text of the level prop.

Common examples

Basic card

Comment

API

See the documentation below for a complete reference to all of the props and classes available to the components mentioned here.

• <AspectRatio />
• <Avatar />
• <Skeleton />
• <Typography />