A system and methods are disclosed for automatic focus detection with relative threshold-aware cell visibility for a scrolling cell collection. The method includes identifying a visible portion of a graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the visible portion of the GUI includes a plurality of cells, and determining a plurality of distance values, wherein each distance value of the plurality of distances values indicates a distance to a focus threshold in the GUI that a cell of the plurality of cells of the visible portion of the GUI has traveled since the visible portion became visible in the GUI, wherein the distance value comprises a relative threshold visibility value. The method further includes modifying a behavior of the visible portion of the GUI based on the distance value of each of the plurality of cells.