How to disable animations in code when running Espresso tests

I'm executing these three commands for each animation type and they are working for me:

adb shell settings put global window_animation_scale 0.0
adb shell settings put global transition_animation_scale 0.0
adb shell settings put global animator_duration_scale 0.0

More information here - prepare android emulator for UI test automation.

Even better approach is to update app/build.gradle, if you're running tests from command line.

android {
    ...
    ...

    testOptions {
        animationsDisabled = true
    }
}

You may have to do ./gradlew clean before rebuilding. If you used android studio, it may not update the apk on your device assuming that nothing changed in the apk. Watch out for those to ensure that the change is actually taking effect on your device.

Also read the documentation here.

Disables animations during instrumented tests you run from the cammand line.

If you set this property to true, running instrumented tests with Gradle from the command line executes am instrument with the --no-window-animation flag. By default, this property is set to false.

This property does not affect tests that you run using Android Studio.

use this wayes:

1. You use this in Gradle

android {

  //...

  testOptions {
    animationsDisabled = true
  }

  // ...
}

2. Use in ADB for device

adb shell settings put global window_animation_scale 0 &
adb shell settings put global transition_animation_scale 0 &
adb shell settings put global animator_duration_scale 0 &

3. Use the Rule

class DisableAnimationsRule : TestRule {
    override fun apply(base: Statement, description: Description): Statement {
        return object : Statement() {
            @Throws(Throwable::class)
           override fun evaluate() {
                // disable animations for test run
                changeAnimationStatus(enable = false)
                try {
                    base.evaluate()
                } finally {
                    // enable after test run
                    changeAnimationStatus(enable = true)
                }
            }
        }
    }

    @Throws(IOException::class)
    private fun changeAnimationStatus(enable:Boolean = true) {
        with(UiDevice.getInstance(InstrumentationRegistry.getInstrumentation())){
            executeShellCommand("settings put global transition_animation_scale ${if(enable) 1 else 0}")
            executeShellCommand("settings put global window_animation_scale ${if(enable) 1 else 0}")
            executeShellCommand("settings put global animator_duration_scale ${if(enable) 1 else 0}")
        }
    }
}

• The testOptions animationsDisabled property would be the simplest approach but it "does not affect tests that you run using Android Studio" and it doesn't seem to work in command line tests either, or maybe it's flakey.

• The shell settings commands adb shell settings put global window_animation_scale 0.0 etc. work but you must remember to set them on each new AVD. It's easy to forget when creating new AVDs for new OS releases and screen formats, even if you use a shell script. Also, you'd have to restore them to try out a splash screen animation.

• The most reliable approach is a JUnit TestRule. On API 33+ it can call UiAutomation#setAnimationScale(). On API 21+ it can call UiAutomation#executeShellCommand().

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Statement apply(@NonNull Statement base, @NonNull Description description) {
        return new Statement() {
            @Override
            public void evaluate() throws Throwable {
                setAnimationScale("0.0");
                try {
                    base.evaluate();
                } finally {
                    setAnimationScale("1.0");
                }
            }

            private void setAnimationScale(@NonNull String value) {
                final UiAutomation uiAutomation =
                        InstrumentationRegistry.getInstrumentation().getUiAutomation();

                // TODO: On API 33+ this could call uiAutomation.setAnimationScale(float).
                setGlobalSetting(uiAutomation, "window_animation_scale", value);
                setGlobalSetting(uiAutomation, "transition_animation_scale", value);
                setGlobalSetting(uiAutomation, "animator_duration_scale", value);
            }

            private void setGlobalSetting(@NonNull UiAutomation uiAutomation,
                                          @NonNull String key, @NonNull String value) {
                try {
                    uiAutomation.executeShellCommand(
                        "settings put global " + key + " " + value).close();
                } catch (IOException | RuntimeException e) {
                    Log.w(TAG, "Failed to set UI " + key + " = " + value, e);
                }
            }
        };
    }