Two month ago, we reported that Microsoft was working on a new streamlined design language for Windows 10 called Project Neon. While these UI/UX changes are not supposed to appear until the upcoming Redstone 3 update slated for late 2017, we already knew that Project Neon will add a nice layer of polish on Windows 10 with new animations, blurring and transparency effects which may please nostalgics of Windows 7’s Aero Glass.
If Microsoft has yet to communicate about its new design language, it now seems that we may not need to wait for the first Redstone 3 builds to learn more abour Project Neon: according to a new report from Windows Central, the latest Windows 10 Insider builds quietly brought some Project Neon APIs to Windows 10 PCs, and developers can already use these elements to improve how their apps behave and look like. This is what the developer of Interop Tools, a registry app for all Windows 10 devices, has been trying to do over the past couple of days, sharing his progress on Twitter:
Latest experiments, more neon stuff, and tabs, also removed that left margin pic.twitter.com/7KnExtO3f4
— Interop Tools (@InteropTools) January 21, 2017
The developer published a preview build of the app last week and Windows Central shared some interesting details about it:
So far, the Interop Unlock Tools app using Project NEON designs features blur elements, which display whatever is behind the window. It also features a few animations, but the app is still in preview, so more animations should be added down the line.
The Interop Tools preview build only works on the latest Windows 10 Insider builds, and you can download it here if you want to try it. We may well see other developers experiment with these early Project Neon APIs in the coming months, and we can’t wait to learn more about the new design language.
