More Project NEON concept leaks reveal new animations in tow for Redstone 3

By Zac Bowden
last updated

Project NEON will bring new, fluid animations to the user-interface with Windows 10 Redstone 3 in the fall.

More Project NEON concepts have today leaked, revealing yet more improvements in the plans for the new design language scheduled to be arriving system-wide with Redstone 3. Up until now, we haven't really seen what Microsoft has planned in regards to the animation department, outside of our own explaining back in 2016 that Microsoft wants NEON to be fluid and animation heavy.

Today's Project NEON concept leaks confirm our original report, with plans to make the UI very fluid, clean and animated, giving it a much more iOS-like style touch of design. This is something Windows 10 desperately needs, as currently its UI is much more static that fluid.

Windows Central can confirm that the concept images leaked today are legitimate, and are part of the same batch of concept images that leaked previously. Since they are concepts, they don't represent the final product, although I'm pretty sure Microsoft will be transforming these concepts into real code as accurately as possible.

Other UI tweaks include a parallax effect on the desktop when moving windows around, and a small animation when tapping on live tiles and other elements. There's also a nice hover-effect being considered for apps like the Mail client, another nice touch. All these improvements should make for a nice looking operating system with Redstone 3, which is scheduled to land in the fall.

Zac Bowden
Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.

53 Comments
  • Release this feature in RS2 instead of RS3 non insider 🙂
  • If only. This is far from being finished and RS2 is days away from a public release.
  • Not a single small, phone-like screen. Another sign of doom, sigh
  • You're absolutely right, Neon would do miracles for the animation on Windows phone, but forgotten again it would seem. I really hope Microsoft is writing code in the background and just surprises us all when Surface Phone comes out. Either way, I am a captain who will sink with his ship. #L950
  • I am seriously doubting whether my 950xl will get rs3. If the 1520/930 can't make the cut for rs2, I have faint hopes for the last gen Lumias and other Windows Phones.
  • Of course we won't get rs3. Because judging on the past Microsoft is full of lies and has dropped support too many times. I once thought windows was the place to be, where you could finally use a phone/tablet for 4 years and constantly have the latest software. But it was all a fake dream. They will do anything to prevent us from updating to rs3. Because they want us all to buy their new device.
  • They don't have any new device.
  • How is Microsoft full of lies? They clearly said when Windows 10 was launched that ALL devices are supported and will get updates for 2-3 years.  All the devices that didn't make the cut are older than that.  So they are not lieing at all.  Also, do remember that most Android devices don't even get OS updates at all and there's tons of threads complaining about that. So Microsoft is actually being good here.
  • It seems like people only know how to complain. You are spot on with android not releasing their OS update to every device, despite the number of users using that platform. That's what I call abandoning. Whereas microsoft is still releasing OS update to their mobile devices (touchwood), despite the market share. The devices that are not getting the update is due to being old. I don't think Microsoft is lying or abandoning its users, it is the users abandoning the OS for their own reasons and making a post about "why I switched to Android or iOS."
  • I think your right.  I believe MS will abandon Windows Mobile all togeather for Windows on Arm with the Surface Phone and it will only be available for SD835 or above which no current handsets have.  I understand thier move, but think it is wrong.  I think they should retain WM for low end and use WOA for highend.  This way they can target the low end with resource constraints with out hampering the features of WOA.  It seems MS has really bad timing.  They flood the market with low cost phones when major carriers were subsidising handsets, now when the subsidies are disappearing, they are doubling down on expensive phones. Exact opposite of what the market needs.
  • Calm down, you guys. These are just some very early samples. RS3 is still one year down the line.
  • It's due this year
  • Microsoft is supposed to be doing 2 major updates per year -- they just failed to deliver RS2 in 2016 like they were supposed to.
  • I have been practicing sinking for the last 2 years.
  • Better make friends with Sponge Bob quickly
  • What about the Groove Music tweaks for mobile insiders? Didn't that have something to do with Neon?
  • Exactly! It's a good sign!
  • Still people are doubting. It will happen either completely or nothing for the mobile. But it has been started for the mobile so there is more probability that it will happen than not. Just bit of a logic.
  • Lots of wasted space all round the application.
  • It's all concept, it shouldn't be like that when the final product comes out
  • This is great.. It's nice to see Microsoft working on UI and overall enjoyment and the way the OS 'works beautifully' It would be nice if they could also consolidate things, like, the 2 control panels, for instance (classic and new.. just make them one!) Just my 2 cents. Great job MS! Bring it on.
  • Love it
  • ...more static "than" fluid.
  • How can you have animations when there will be no more apps to open by that time?
  • That's a gloomy prophecy.
  • Do you even PC bruh?
  • Anyone having trouble viewing the animation?
  • Yeah, I do not know why ☹
  • click the first link in the article. It'll lead you to a working version
  • Thanks!!!!!! Btw, this is so awesome 🤗🤗
  • I thought thats was the new animation they're talking about..😂😂😂😂
  • The animation looks glitchy on both my PC and my phone, both in the browser and in the app.
  • Same, i had to enter in the source site to view it
  • Que bello, lastima que dudo ver esto en mi lumia...
  • Yo tambien lo dudo mucho, y si llegara a Mobile seria para los gama alta.
  • Is it just me that personally prefers the look we have now? I know it's still early concepts but I'm quite happy as is. I'll probably warm to it. Also wondering how all these transparencies and flashy animations and effects will work on older hardware running W10, which might struggle. Maybe RS3 is going to be an update to rejudge what devices qualify going forward, like the upgrade advisor did at launch.
  • Yeah just you mostly.
  • Awesome.
  • If they include this in Windows 10 and they release Windows 10 on ARM by RS3 then phones that support Windows 10 on ARM will get project NEON. I doubt the Lumia 950/950Xl would get this feature.  
  • So what did we have?
    1. Gradients and glares on edges everywhere (XP, and all the web 2.0)
    2. Transparencies and blurs from Vista/7
    3. Clean Modern(Metro UI) Win 8 with focus on content
    4. More transparencies on Win10 And now concepts have all transparent, blurred with a lot of "glow" effect which even reveals separators between elements.
    Is it OS UI where user have to work for several hours straight or "escape the room" game type? I find in nice to see on this concept images, they are great looking, but for daily usage I prefer more current elements with semitransparent gray rectangles on background.
    I would like to see more elegant full elements animation for drag'n'drop or transitions between application views. P.S. Probably everything is such transparent because the way of how objects might look on mixed reality (they can't be fully opaque especially at dark areas) ?
    P.P.S. And blurred because we will spoil the sight as soon as we'll have consumer ready HoloLens like devices? xD
  • For hover there are too many effects in my opinion. I hope we will see some great animations for resize, minimize, maximize, switching between apps, etc.
  • Redstone 3 is going to be awesome. It's sad that mobile users won't see the new UI. Even if Surface Phone comes out, with no apps it won't succeed. I hate Microsoft for killing my favourite OS. I guess we need to go to ios or android.
  • Hoping the animations for tablet mode have improved too. In current builds desktop looks smoother than tablet mode. Especially the app switcher animations needs some more love.
  • Yeah, they showcased the concept of the animations for Tablet mode, it looks 👌👌👌
  • Anyone know if they are even toying with the idea of folders?
  • I've been saying for years that Windows should have more animations in it. It got live tiles but it should do a lot more than that. Waiting on Redstone 3.
  • Do I See a Snapchat!!!!
  • For Phone, I'll prefer proper Memory management instead of animations 😒
    Fed up of resuming.. resuming.. and CRASH !!!
    What's the use of 3Gb Ram and 2Ghz processor !
  • A vision of Groove Music app  with the new Design Language Neon. Microsoft finally made it.  Ads for NEON : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHnTz-j8ojM
  • I'm still waiting for new tabs on edge to open to my choice of page, like my default home page rather than  new is ui
  • " land in the fall"? Fall of what?  
  • The season of Fall, Fall 2017
  • Just remove the laggy interface. We are fine with animations.