Transient activation

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Transient activation (or “transient user activation”) is a window state that indicates a user has recently pressed a button, moved a mouse, used a menu, or performed some other user interaction.

This state is sometimes used as a mechanism for ensuring that a web API can only function if triggered by user interaction. For example, scripts cannot arbitrarily launch a popup that requires transient activation ⁠—it must be triggered from a UI element’s event handler.

See Features gated by user activation for examples of APIs that require transient activation.

See the {{domxref("UserActivation.isActive")}}  property to programmatically access the current window’s transient activation state.

[!NOTE] Transient activation expires after a timeout (if not renewed by further interaction), and may also be “consumed” by some APIs. See {{Glossary("Sticky activation")}}  for a user activation that doesn’t reset after it has been set initially.

See also

• HTML Living Standard > Transient activation
• Related glossary terms:
  • {{Glossary("Sticky activation")}} 
• {{domxref("UserActivation.isActive")}}