Avatars stop flashing everywhere: backgrounds, not <img>

A recreated <img> decodes async — one blank frame per render, and boot
renders in bursts. A CSS background paints synchronously from cache, so
the profile page, chat rows, and send candidates all hold steady now.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <[email protected]>

3 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/features/messages.js b/src/features/messages.js
index f9a2176..293ebd9 100644
--- a/src/features/messages.js
+++ b/src/features/messages.js
@@ -962,7 +962,9 @@ export function messagesFeature(ctx) {
     const node = p === null
       ? h('div', { class: cls + ' fallback loading' })
       : p.picture
-        ? h('img', { class: cls, src: p.picture, alt: '' })
+        // A background paints synchronously from cache; a fresh <img> decodes
+        // async, so recreating one per render made avatars visibly flash.
+        ? h('div', { class: cls + ' ava-img', style: `background-image:url(${JSON.stringify(p.picture)})` })
         : fallbackAvatar(h, pk, p.name, cls);
     if (clickable) {
       node.classList.add('clickable');
diff --git a/src/recipient-search.js b/src/recipient-search.js
index b8a17ea..2cf52b6 100644
--- a/src/recipient-search.js
+++ b/src/recipient-search.js
@@ -161,7 +161,9 @@ export function resultRows(h, rows, onPick) {
   return rows.map((r) =>
     h('div', { class: 'item chat-thread-row', onClick: () => onPick(r) },
       r.picture
-        ? h('img', { class: 'chat-avatar', src: r.picture, alt: '' })
+        // background, not <img>: paints synchronously from cache, so rows
+        // re-rendered per keystroke don't flash their avatars
+        ? h('div', { class: 'chat-avatar ava-img', style: `background-image:url(${JSON.stringify(r.picture)})` })
         : fallbackAvatar(h, r.pk, r.name, 'chat-avatar'),
       h('div', { class: 'col grow', style: 'min-width:0;gap:1px' },
         h('div', { class: 'chat-name' }, r.name || (npubOf(r.pk) || '').slice(0, 12)),
diff --git a/src/style.css b/src/style.css
index 264b85e..ff652a5 100644
--- a/src/style.css
+++ b/src/style.css
@@ -365,6 +365,7 @@ hr.divider { margin: 16px 0; }
   width: 30px; height: 30px; border-radius: 50%; flex-shrink: 0; object-fit: cover;
   background: var(--accent-soft);
 }
+.ava-img { background-size: cover; background-position: center; }
 .chat-avatar.fallback {
   display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center;
   font-size: 11px; font-weight: 650; color: var(--muted); text-transform: uppercase;