Skeleton Loading Screens in Next.js App Router — The Right Way to Handle Async UI

Skeleton screens are one of those things that seem simple until you actually implement them well. The basic idea is straightforward: show a placeholder shaped like the content while it loads. The execution has a lot of ways to go wrong. Here's what actually works in Next.js App Router, from the patterns I've landed on after a lot of iteration building free AI image generator high quality where loading states are visible on almost every interaction. A spinner communicates "something is happening." A skeleton communicates "here's roughly what you're about to see." That distinction matters more t