Notifications Upcoming
Upcoming feature
The notification system described here is part of the next-generation Niuton shell and is in active development. It is not yet available in the current release — this page documents it ahead of general availability.
Niuton has a calm, non-nagging notification system: a bell in the top bar, a lightweight notification center, and subtle cues on the Aurora orb. It follows "Calm Technology" principles — notifications inform without demanding, never stack up, and are always one glance away.
Works in both shell modes
The notification bell, center and orb cues live in the shared top bar, so they behave identically on the Desktop and in Cloud Mode.
The bell
A bell button sits in the top bar. When there are unread notifications it carries a small unread badge (a count, capped at 9+). Its accessible label announces the unread count for screen readers.
- Click the bell to open the notification center.
- Opening the center marks everything as read, clearing the badge.
The notification center
A compact popover anchored under the top bar:
- List — Notifications newest-first, each with a title, an optional body line, and a status dot (info / success / warning). Unread items are subtly highlighted.
- Alle gelesen — Mark everything read without opening each item.
- Empty state — A quiet "Keine Benachrichtigungen" when there's nothing to show.
- Press Escape or click away to dismiss it.
Orb cues
The Aurora orb in the top bar doubles as an ambient indicator:
- Unread dot — A small dot appears on the orb while notifications are unread.
- Completion peak — When something finishes, the orb gives a single, gentle "peak" pulse — a one-shot beat, never a continuous animation. Like everything else, it's suppressed under reduced-motion.
Where notifications come from
Today the primary source is Aurora: when the assistant finishes answering a turn, it pushes a calm "Aurora hat geantwortet" notification and triggers the orb peak — so you can start a long request, switch away, and be gently told when it's done. Error turns don't notify (the in-panel banner already tells you), keeping the feed trustworthy.
The store is a general-purpose shell service, so more sources can feed it over time.
Calm by design
- Whisper-dedupe — Proactive nudges that share a key are de-duplicated, so a recurring hint (e.g. a daily tip) never stacks up.
- Capped history — The store keeps a bounded, newest-first history; the oldest entries drop off.
- Never modal — Notifications never interrupt with a dialog; they wait quietly in the bell and center.
- Screen-reader friendly — Transient app confirmations use an ARIA live region (polite for success/info, assertive for failures) so they're announced without stealing focus.