Collapsible Composer
The most thoughtful interfaces know when to be present and when to disappear.
In mobile AI applications, every pixel carries weight. Users navigate between reading, thinking, and responding—yet traditional input fields demand permanent real estate, even when dormant. This spatial greed creates visual noise that competes with the very content users came to consume.
The Collapsible Composer recognizes a fundamental truth: input should be invisible until the moment of need. When collapsed, it becomes a simple floating button that whispers availability without shouting presence. When summoned, it blooms into a fully-featured composer with fluid grace, then disappears completely when dismissed.
This isn't just space-saving, it is spatial intelligence applied to the rhythm of conversation with AI.
The Problem of Persistent Input
Most AI chat interfaces follow a pattern borrowed from desktop messaging: a persistent input field anchored to the bottom of the screen. On mobile, this creates several problems that compound over time.
First, there's the spatial cost. That fixed input bar consumes valuable screen real estate—often 80-120 pixels that could display another line of AI response or user context. In conversation interfaces where every visible word matters, this represents significant information loss.
More subtly, persistent inputs create visual competition. They establish a constant tension between reading (passive) and writing (active) modes. Users find themselves fighting the interface's implicit pressure to respond immediately, even when they're still processing the AI's previous response.
The psychological effect is equally important. A visible text field suggests immediacy and interruption, like someone standing nearby waiting for you to speak. This urgency disrupts the contemplative rhythm that produces thoughtful queries and meaningful AI interactions.
The Art of Appearing and Disappearing
The Collapsible Composer addresses these issues through carefully orchestrated presence and absence. When collapsed, it exists as a minimal floating button—present enough to signal availability, small enough to feel unobtrusive.
The magic happens in the transition. Instead of sliding up from the bottom like a mechanical drawer, the composer blooms from its trigger point using a flower-like animation. This organic motion feels natural and intentional, like thoughts emerging from consciousness rather than interfaces imposing themselves on users.
The animation serves multiple purposes beyond aesthetic appeal. The blooming effect provides spatial continuity, users see exactly where their input area comes from and where it returns. The rotation and scaling create visual momentum that makes the expansion feel lightweight and responsive, never heavy or imposed.
When dismissed, the collapse animation reverses this journey with equal grace, folding back into its minimal state like a flower closing at dusk. This symmetry creates predictable behavior that users quickly internalize.
Spatial Intelligence on Mobile
Mobile interfaces demand different spatial relationships than desktop experiences. Thumbs move in arcs, attention follows scanning patterns, and context switches happen rapidly. The Collapsible Composer adapts to these realities through thoughtful positioning and sizing.
The component defaults to bottom-right placement, aligning with natural thumb reach zones for right-handed users while offering position flexibility for different layouts or user preferences. When expanded, the 320px width provides comfortable typing space without overwhelming smaller screens.
The floating approach also solves the keyboard interaction problem elegantly. Rather than pushing existing content up and creating jarring layout shifts, the composer overlays temporarily, preserving the spatial relationships users have already established with the underlying content.
This overlay philosophy extends to the component's visual design. Semi-transparent backgrounds and subtle shadows help the composer feel connected to but distinct from the underlying interface, creating clear hierarchy without harsh separation.
Beyond Mobile: Universal Spatial Courtesy
While designed for mobile AI applications, the Collapsible Composer's principles apply more broadly. Any interface where input happens intermittently—support systems, feedback forms, comment sections—benefits from this approach to spatial courtesy.
The component's position flexibility allows it to integrate into existing layouts without disruption. Whether floating in corners, embedded statically for demos, or positioned context-appropriately, the core behavior remains consistent while adapting to different spatial constraints.
The animation system scales gracefully across device sizes and performance capabilities, maintaining smooth interactions on both high-end and modest hardware. This consistency ensures the spatial intelligence translates across the full spectrum of devices where AI conversations happen.
In the end, the Collapsible Composer succeeds not by drawing attention to itself, but by creating space for meaningful interaction. It blooms when thoughts are ready, recedes when reflection is needed, and disappears entirely when the conversation flows. This careful choreography of presence and absence transforms a simple input field into something more valuable: an interface that understands the true rhythm of human-AI interactions.