Less Blur with `Visual Effect View with Blur`?

It’s a pity that Apple did not provide any options for blur effect. But this workaround worked for me – animating the blur effect and pausing it before completion.

func blurEffectView(enable enable: Bool) {
    let enabled = self.blurView.effect != nil
    guard enable != enabled else { return }

    switch enable {
    case true:
        let blurEffect = UIBlurEffect(style: .ExtraLight)
        UIView.animateWithDuration(1.5) {
            self.blurView.effect = blurEffect
        }

        self.blurView.pauseAnimation(delay: 0.3)
    case false:
        self.blurView.resumeAnimation()

        UIView.animateWithDuration(0.1) {
            self.blurView.effect = nil
        }
    }
}

and the UIView extensions for pausing (with a delay) and resuming view’s animation

extension UIView {

    public func pauseAnimation(delay delay: Double) {
        let time = delay + CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent()
        let timer = CFRunLoopTimerCreateWithHandler(kCFAllocatorDefault, time, 0, 0, 0, { timer in
            let layer = self.layer
            let pausedTime = layer.convertTime(CACurrentMediaTime(), fromLayer: nil)
            layer.speed = 0.0
            layer.timeOffset = pausedTime
        })
        CFRunLoopAddTimer(CFRunLoopGetCurrent(), timer, kCFRunLoopCommonModes)
    }

    public func resumeAnimation() {
        let pausedTime  = layer.timeOffset

        layer.speed = 1.0
        layer.timeOffset = 0.0
        layer.beginTime = layer.convertTime(CACurrentMediaTime(), fromLayer: nil) - pausedTime
    }
}