Hover not working if first interaction on page (in tests)

[rothsandro]

Hey 👋 ,

I'm using RAC and I noticed an issue with the Tooltip component. If hovering over the trigger is the first interaction on the page, the tooltip will not be shown. This can be reproduced in the docs:

1. Reload the page
2. Switch to a different window (without ever moving the cursor over the page)
3. Move the cursor to the position of the button trigger (but on the other window)
4. Switch back to the browser (Cmd+Tab)
5. => The cursor is now on the button but no tooltip is shown until

Screen.Recording.2025-11-11.at.19.13.25.mov

This is definitely not a very common way for users to interact with an app 😅 but I noticed the same problem when writing a test for the component. I use Vitest with its Browser Mode and calling hover() doesn't trigger the tooltip:

await screen.getByRole("button").hover();

It works if I trigger another interaction before hovering over the button (like hovering over a different button first or clicking on a different button). Another workaround is to call setInteractionModality("pointer") before hovering over the trigger.

The tooltip trigger checks the interaction modality and only shows the tooltip for "pointer":

react-spectrum/packages/@react-aria/tooltip/src/useTooltipTrigger.ts

Line 87 in 2485ffa

if (getInteractionModality() === 'pointer') {

The interaction modality is set to "pointer" when a pointermove event is triggered on the document:

react-spectrum/packages/@react-aria/interactions/src/useFocusVisible.ts

Lines 153 to 155 in 2485ffa

	documentObject.addEventListener('pointerdown', handlePointerEvent, true);
	documentObject.addEventListener('pointermove', handlePointerEvent, true);
	documentObject.addEventListener('pointerup', handlePointerEvent, true);

The hover() in my test first emits the pointer events on the button and only after that emits a pointer event on the document, so it's already too late.

Is this a bug that could be fixed or what's the recommended way to handle this case in tests?

[rothsandro]

Oh damn, just saw there was already a discussion: #9005

[reidbarber]

Also see: #5701