---
name: Interstitial
slug: interstitial
category: pattern
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A full screen placed between two steps of a flow, carrying a
  message, an advert, or a warning that the reader must pass through to
  continue.
aliases:
  - name: interruption page
    source: govuk
  - name: interstitial ad
    source: community
  - name: splash interstitial
    source: community
  - name: in-between screen
    source: community
tags:
  - overlays
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - welcome-mat
    - smart-app-banner
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - modal-dialog
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "GOV.UK Design System: Interruption pages"
    url: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/interruption-pages/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: a whole screen sits between you and where you were going
---

An interstitial is a screen the reader did not ask for, standing between the thing they
clicked and the thing they wanted. The word covers a wide family: the advert between
two article pages, the app install screen a mobile site shows on arrival, the age gate,
the "your download will begin shortly" page, and the warning a government service puts
in front of a question people must not answer casually. What they share is the shape.
The whole viewport is given over to one message, the journey is paused rather than
branched, and there is exactly one way onward.

The useful distinction is against a [modal dialog](/modal-dialog). A modal is an
overlay on the page you are already on: the page stays behind it, escape closes it,
focus is trapped and then handed back, and nothing about your position changes. An
interstitial is a page in its own right. It usually has its own address, it appears in
browser history, and there is nothing behind it to return to. That difference is not
decorative, it decides the design. An interstitial has to say where the reader was
going and carry them the rest of the way, because dismissing it is not an option the
way closing a dialog is, and the browser Back button has to lead somewhere sane rather
than bouncing the reader into the same screen again.

There is a genuinely good version. The GOV.UK Design System calls it an interruption
page and uses it exactly once per journey, for a warning that must not be skimmed: a
declaration, a consequence, a change that cannot be undone. The rules that make it work
are worth copying anywhere. One message and nothing else on the screen, no secondary
decisions, no navigation, plain language, and a single obvious control that continues
the thing the reader started. If a page like this is being reached for twice in one
flow, the flow is the problem.

The abusive version is the one most people picture, and it has real costs. Interstitial
adverts that cover an article on arrival, app install screens that hide the content
they promised, and countdown gated "skip" buttons all charge the reader for something
they already chose. Search engines treat this as a quality problem rather than a taste
one: Google has demoted pages that hide their content behind intrusive interstitials on
mobile since 2017, with carve outs for legal obligations such as cookie consent and age
verification, and for small banners that leave the page readable. The pattern that
survives that test is the one that was serving the reader's journey rather than
interrupting it, which is also, usually, the one that would survive being explained to
them.