The macOS Dock’s auto-hide animation has a noticeable delay by default. You can make it appear and disappear instantly using Terminal commands.

Remove the delay:

# Remove show delay (instant appearance)
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0

# Remove animation duration (instant hide/show)
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0

# Restart Dock to apply changes
killall Dock

What this does:

• autohide-delay controls how long you must hover before the Dock appears (default: ~0.5 seconds)
• autohide-time-modifier controls the animation speed (default: ~0.24 seconds)
• Setting both to 0 makes the Dock respond instantly

Adjust to your preference:

You can use different values for a balance between instant and smooth:

# Fast but with slight animation
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.1
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.5
killall Dock

Revert to default:

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay
defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier
killall Dock

This makes the auto-hide Dock much more responsive, especially useful on larger displays where mouse movement takes time or when you need quick access to Dock icons.

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