14 DAY TRIAL // Project NEON is slowly but surely spreading across the full app lineup in Windows 10, and the People app is the most recent one to get visual improvements as part of this new effort.
An update released to the People app for systems enrolled in the Windows Insider program brings a substantial overhaul that goes beyond the typical refresh that we’ve seen in Windows 10 so far and including some Project NEON tweaks.
This time, the facelift is more substantial and covers the full interface of the application, with the translucency and blur effect now available not only in the left sidebar but also across every other menu.
Performance tweaks
As you can see in the screenshot below, the People app really looks better on a Windows 10 desktop, though there’s one thing that you should note: when clicking outside the window and the People app automatically goes in the background, the transparency effect disappears and the app switches to the same solid color background as before the update.
This is probably a performance tweak implemented by Microsoft, as visual effects like transparency would only require more resources, making Windows a bit heavier on CPU and RAM.
So by forcing the app to switch to the solid background mode when not in focus, Microsoft prevents the whole thing from slowing down the system, especially when multitasking. It’s not known just yet if this is a behavior that the company wants to keep for the final version of Redstone 3 or whether it’s just experimenting at this point in the Insider program
If you want to try this new update yourselves, what you have to do is be part of the Windows Insider program in the Fast ring and install the most recent version of the People app. So head over to the Windows Store and check the Downloads and updates section for the latest update - the version you need to download is 10.2.1211.0.