Animations New

Nine small animations around Poni and the Dock, each with its own switch: a light round the closed Poni for alerts and timers, windows and menus that come out of their Dock icon, notifications you can swipe away, karaoke lyrics, confetti for a done day and more.

Settings → Animations

Turning them on or off

Open Settings → Animations, in the Poni group of the menu on the left. Each animation has its own switch, and a change shows right away.

• A new install starts with all nine on.
• An update from an older Poni keeps Poni looking as it did: all nine start off, and you turn on the ones you like. An animation that comes in a later update starts off for you too.
• They don't follow Windows' animation effects (Windows Settings → Accessibility → Visual effects → Animation effects). Turning that off in Windows leaves these as you set them here. Poni sliding away for a fullscreen app does follow Windows' setting (see Auto-hide).

Glowing outline for alerts

While an alert shows in the closed Poni, a thin light runs from the bottom middle out along both sides of Poni's outline, up to the edge of the screen, and fades. It runs again and again while the alert is there; for an alert that stays up longer, like the adhan, during its first 20 seconds. Its colour tells you what it's for:

• Amber: a task coming due, a meeting about to start, a prayer time or the countdown before it, and the adhan.
• Green: the charger plugged in. It runs twice while Charging shows.
• Red: low battery.
• Blue: AI Chat working on an answer, in the Buddy's bubble, for a scheduled brief, or for a question you asked in the AI Chat tab before Poni closed.

With a Gap from the top edge, Poni floats as a pill and the light runs all the way round it. The outline only shows on the closed Poni while you can see it: not while Poni is open, hidden, or in over a fullscreen app for a HUD.

Timer outline

While a Timer or a Pomodoro session runs, both sides of the closed Poni's outline stay lit for the share of time that's left, and the light shortens toward the bottom middle as the time runs down. It's green, turns amber when half the time is left and red at a quarter. When the time is up, the whole outline blinks red a few times.

When a Timer and a Pomodoro run at once, the outline follows the one that ends first. An alert's glowing outline goes first while it shows. The Timer outline needs the countdown in the closed Poni: Live activities while Poni is closed and Pomodoro, timer and stopwatch on in Settings → Live Activities. See Pomodoro.

Windows and popups come out of their Dock icon

The Dock's popups stretch up out of the icon or button they belong to, and are pulled back into it when they close: an app's window list, its right-click menu, and the grid of other apps' tray icons. A menu that opens while another goes back in comes out once the first is in.

App windows do it too, when you use the Dock:

• Click the icon of the app in front to minimize its window: the window bends down into the icon.
• Click the icon again, or the window's row in the window list: it comes back up out of the icon, to where it was.
• A window minimized another way, like with its title bar button, zooms out of the icon instead when a Dock click brings it back.

Only clicks on the Dock do this, and only on the Dock's own display. A minimize from the title bar stays Windows' own. This needs the Dock on: Settings → Dock → Show the Dock. See Dock.

Files fly into the Shelf

Drop a file on the Shelf tab, or on the Shelf tile among the Drop Actions: its icon flies along a short curve into the Shelf's tab and shrinks as it goes, and the count on the tab bumps once the Shelf has it. When you drop several files, the icon carries their number. While you drag files over Poni with the Shelf tab showing, its list swells a little. See Shelf & Drop Actions.

Stacked notifications

Windows notifications under the closed Poni pile up like a deck of cards instead of a list. The newest drops out of Poni in front, and each older one sits a little lower and smaller behind it. Three show, with +2 more (for example) under them when there are more.

1. Drag the front card sideways with the mouse, or swipe it with a finger. It follows, tilts and fades, and the next card comes forward.
2. Let go past about 90 px, or flick it, and it flies off and is closed, as with its ×. Let go sooner and it springs back.

A click on the front card still opens its app, and its × still closes it. This needs Windows notifications in Poni: Settings → Notifications → Show Windows notifications in Poni. See Windows notifications.

Tabs slide in from their side

While Poni is open, picking a tab to the right of the one you're on slides its page in from the right while the old page goes out to the left, and a tab to the left comes in from the left. The highlight behind the active tab glides over to the new one with a little spring. It works with a click on a tab and with ← / →. Opening Poni shows its tab straight away, without a slide.

Volume bar bounces at the ends

Press volume down at 0%, or volume up at 100%: the volume HUD shows, its bar stretches a little past the end and springs back, and the speaker wiggles, so you can see you're at the end. Holding the key down bounces it once at a time.

This needs Enable HUD and Take over volume keys on in Settings → HUD: without them, Windows handles the keys and Poni never hears a press that changes nothing. Volume up while the sound is muted turns the sound back on instead. On the Control tab its own slider shows the volume, so there's no bounce there. See HUD & battery.

Karaoke lyrics

The line being sung fills with colour from its first word to its last, in time with the song, and the next line slides up into its place. On a dark Poni the colour is yellow; on a light one it fills with dark text. It works in the closed Poni (under it or inside it) and on Home, and follows the song when you skip ahead or pause.

This needs Lyrics on in Settings → Media, and works on lyrics with timings per line. Lyrics without timings show as usual. See Home.

Celebrate a done day

Tick off the last open task that's due today, and confetti bursts from Poni. If the Buddy is showing, it hops twice with its ears up and sends up hearts. It counts when you tick the task off yourself: in the Todo tab, with the check in the closed Poni, or by asking AI Chat.

It happens at most once a day. Unticking a task and ticking it again doesn't start it over, and tasks that Mark late tasks as done ticks off by itself don't count. Only tasks with a due time today count, so a day with no due tasks has nothing to celebrate. See Todo and Buddy.

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