Smooth Streaming

With Smooth Streaming on, each new word in a response fades in as it arrives instead of popping onto the screen, which makes a fast stream easier to read along with. It only affects the latest response while it is generating, including reasoning text you have expanded.

It is on by default. To turn it off, open Settings > Chat > Messages and switch off Smooth streaming text (fade in new words). The setting is stored in your browser.

What it changes and what it does not

The fade is visual only. Tokens arrive just as fast, and the response text and saved message are the same either way. While the fade is on, the block cursor at the end of the stream is hidden, since the fade already shows that text is still coming.

Code blocks, math, artifacts, citations, and MCP UI content do not fade word by word. Text that was already on screen does not animate again when a stream reconnects or you switch conversations.

When an agent's run is grouped into activity phases, a newly generated phase summary folds the activities above it into its collapsed group with a short transition. History you load later shows the groups already folded.

If your device asks for reduced motion (the prefers-reduced-motion setting), LibreChat skips all of these animations, whatever the toggle says.

Elapsed time

While a response is generating, a timer under it shows how long it has been running, in seconds and then minutes. It counts from when you sent the message, including if you navigate away and back in the same session. After a full page reload during generation it restarts from when the response reappears. The timer shows only on the latest response while it is generating, is not saved, and stays visible whether Smooth Streaming is on or off.

Setup

Smooth Streaming needs no setup; each user controls it in their own settings. Activity phase summaries are turned on by an admin; see Agent Activity Groups.