Portal is at its best when you barely notice it’s there. Quietly recedes into the background, leaving only the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of the natural world in front of you. This release is dedicated to exactly that. We’ve refined almost every corner of the experience, smoothing out kinks, improving reliability, and polishing countless small details so Portal feels more effortless, reliable, and immersive than ever before. *Behind the Scenes* Much of the work in this release has focused on the parts of Portal you rarely see, but experience every time you use it. We’ve substantially upgraded the systems responsible for streaming, downloading, caching, widgets, desktop wallpapers, search, and overall responsiveness, helping everything feel faster, recover more gracefully, and stay reliably in sync. Highlights include: - Smoother, more reliable video streaming, downloading and playback - particularly on slower or less stable internet connections. - Significant audio reliability improvements, including fixes for rare playback interruptions, silent audio, and more efficient memory usage. - Faster library loading, smoother scrolling, improved search behaviour, and faster content updates. - Improved desktop wallpaper syncing, smoother multi-display support, and more reliable behaviour when waking from sleep or switching Spaces. - More responsive widgets, improved offline downloads, clearer network error reporting, and numerous performance and memory optimisations throughout the app. *A Better, Brighter Lighting Experience* We’ve continued refining Portal’s lighting integrations across Philips Hue, Nanoleaf and HomeKit to make them feel more realistic and dependable. This release includes: - More reliable device discovery and recovery following brief network interruptions. - Improved brightness accuracy and more consistent scene colours. - Better Nanoleaf behaviour, including restoring active effects when playback finishes and correctly handling scenes that transition into darkness. - More realistic lighting previews that accurately reflect your current brightness settings. - Numerous improvements to lighting performance, responsiveness, and overall reliability. *Heaps of Refinements* Alongside the larger improvements, we’ve also polished dozens of smaller details across Portal. From restoring missing interface effects and smoothing navigation gestures to improving Environment Controls, refining search, reducing memory usage, fixing visual glitches, and making playback more resilient, this release brings together well over 60 improvements that together make Portal feel noticeably more refined. Nature feels effortless. We believe Portal should too. Every refinement in this release is another small step towards making Portal fade further into the background of life. Rather than pulling at your attention, it should create more space for focus, calm, and the restorative presence of the natural world. *New Portals* This release also welcomes three beautiful new portals from Pedn Vounder on Cornwall’s stunning coastline. From windswept clifftops and crashing Atlantic waves to the hidden footpath leading down to one of Britain’s most spectacular beaches. We hope you thoroughly enjoy the feeling of escape and wonder they bring. As always, thank you for your continued feedback, bug reports, and encouragement. Every review, email, and suggestion helps shape Portal, and we’re incredibly grateful for the care and enthusiasm this Community continues to show. A special shoutout to Rich from the US, whose kindness, patience, and willingness to help investigate an issue made all the difference. Best wishes, Andy, Alex, Nick & Stu - Team Portal

As daylight stretches further into the evening and summer draws near, this release brings a host of improvements designed to help Portal stay in step with nature’s rhythm. From new Circadian Flow features and smarter automation to substantial enhancements across audio, video and lighting performance, every aspect has been refined to create a smoother and more responsive experience. Circadian Flow continues to improve - Added a brand-new Circadian Flow Widget, making it even easier to tap into nature’s rhythm throughout your day. - Added a dedicated Shortcut for Circadian Flow. - Circadian Flow can now be added to Control Centre, alongside Now Playing and portal-specific playback controls. - Added video loading indicators to Circadian Flow and Play/Pause buttons, making it clearer when a portal is loading and ready to play. Better control and automation - Added support for Continuity Handoff between Macs. - Added Control Centre toggles for lighting, audio, motion, and desktop syncing. - Expanded Shortcut support with dedicated actions for lighting, audio, motion, desktop syncing, plus new controls for lighting brightness and audio volume. - Added new settings for Allow Streaming Video and Allow Offline Downloads. Enhanced lighting experience - Introduced a long-awaited White Light Behaviour setting. - Improved Nanoleaf low-light transitions and Philips Hue brightness accuracy. - Improved lighting connection reliability and faster startup when lighting is configured. Performance & reliability This release also delivers substantial under-the-hood improvements, including faster launch times, smoother library scrolling, improved streaming, caching and buffering, desktop wallpaper enhancements, a completely rebuilt networking and image loading system, plus numerous reliability improvements across audio, video and lighting. Fixes We’ve also resolved a wide range of bugs across playback, audio routing, Premium Membership validation, lighting, Menu Bar, playlists and overall reliability to make Portal feel smoother and more dependable than ever. Many of these improvements may never be directly visible, but together they help Portal feel faster, smoother, and more responsive than ever before. It’s often the smallest details that shape an experience, and we’ve always believed that’s where the magic truly lies. As always, huge thanks for your continued support, feedback, and bug reports. They play a huge role in helping us shape Portal and prioritise how best to improve the experience for everyone. Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick & Stu – Team Portal

After a very wet and blustery January here in the UK, we’ve felt the urge to throw open the windows, clear out the cobwebs, and brighten up our surroundings. This release is very much in that spirit - a spot of seasonal tidying, with a few de-*light*-ful improvements. **New & Improved** - Portal now supports Nanoleaf Matter Smart Floor Lamps and Lightstrips, allowing the ambience of each portal to extend further into your space. For now, each device displays a single colour - with support for gradient lighting planned for a future update. - We’ve also added support for the new Philips Hue Bridge Pro on Mac, making it easier to create that ultimate immersive experience with the latest tech. iOS support is coming later this year. **Fixes** - Fixed a crash that could occur when resizing windows. - Fixed a bug that could prevent sound from playing when toggling audio on after launching Portal with it disabled. - Resolved an issue where certain settings weren’t always applied correctly after restarting Portal, including: - Preferred audio playback mode, - Default sequencer cycle duration, - Prevent display sleep whilst playing (special thanks to Nina from Vienna, Austria, for helping us debug this one.) --- As always, many of the improvements in this release came about with help from members of our community. A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share feedback, report bugs, and help make Portal better for all :) If you spot anything that doesn’t look quite right or have ideas for how we can improve your experience, we’d love to hear from you - please drop us a line at hello@portal.app Many thanks as always for your support, and helping make what we do possible. Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal

As the year draws to a close and the holiday season approaches, this update brings a couple of important fixes to help ensure Portal remains a calm haven you can rely upon during this busy time of year. It also includes an age rating update - and something new to warm your cockles, as a festive thank you from us. ** Bug Fixes ** - Improved long-idle playback reliability Fixes an issue where leaving Portal open without playing for an extended period (over 24 hours) could cause video playback to fail. Portal will now automatically recover and continue playback, so you can pick up from whichever corner of the world you‘d escaped to. - More predictable lighting behaviour during sleep Resolved an issue where synced lights could continue transitioning after your Mac went to sleep. Portal will now un-sync and revert lights to their previous state when your Mac sleeps, and seamlessly re-sync when it wakes. ** Age Rating Update ** Portal’s age rating will be updating from 4+ to 9+, reflecting recent changes to App Store age rating classifications. Apps that include health or wellness-related content are now categorised as 9+ appropriate. We don’t anticipate this impacting most of our community, but if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hello@portal.app - we’re always happy to help. ** And One More Thing... ** As a small holiday thank you, we’ve been working on a nature-inspired Winter Warmers collection, featuring our new Ancient Cottage Fireplace portal. It’s available in the Library now - so grab a blanket and have your mug of hot cocoa at the ready. From all of us here at Portal, thank you for your continued support throughout this year. We wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, cosy holiday season ahead. Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal

As frost begins to glaze the mornings, this release brings a series of quiet refinements to keep Portal running seamlessly through the winter months ahead. With smoother playback, tidier storage, and sharper visuals, this update help keep your window to nature beautifully clear, even through the coldest of days. ** Fixes & Improvements ** - Tapping the currently active Portal in the sidebar now correctly restarts paused playback. - Fixed an issue that could cause audio data to fail to load when restarting playback. - Improved caching of desktop images for smoother, faster scene transitions. - Fixed a bug that could cause excessive storage usage while Portal is running - with thanks to Albert from Austria for flagging this one :) - Corrected a regression that could cause the desktop background to remain on a Portal scene even when **Sync Wallpaper** is disabled. - Resolved an issue where screen spanning could display incorrectly after waking from sleep - huge thanks to Stephan from Germany for spotting this one. - Added support for correctly displaying widgets when using the macOS tinted or clear colour schemes - an issue that Kazi from India was instrumental in helping us resolve. - Updated the “Show desktop” label to “Show on desktop” for clarity. - Added additional logging for video network errors to help us track down those rare but pesky connection issues. Many of the improvements in this release were prompted by our incredibly community - from Austria to India, Germany to the US, and everywhere in between. Your time, care, and support means Portal continues to improve for everyone - it’s a kindness we don’t take for granted, thank you! Warm wishes, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim – Team Portal PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app

With daylight fading earlier and winter drawing near, many of us spend more time indoors and feel that distance from the natural world a little more keenly. This release brings improvements and fixes to elevate the experience and help you better stay in tune with nature’s rhythm and calm through the darker months ahead (and beyond). ** Improvements ** - Circadian Flow can now be started directly from Shortcuts or the Menu Bar, providing new ways to bring nature’s rhythm into your day. - The sidebar now opens automatically on your first play of Circadian Flow, making it even easier to get started. - Portal now remembers your playlist and sidebar state across app launches, so you can pick up right where you left off. - New keyboard shortcuts for Audio (⌘⇧A), Lighting (⌘⇧L), and Desktop (⌘⇧D) - fingertip control over your environment. - Playlists now refresh automatically when updating the Library. - Higher image quality with reduced download sizes for a faster, sharper cinematic experience. ** Bug Fixes ** - Fixed an issue that could cause Portal to get stuck in a loop when clocks changes - very on theme for this time of year! - Resolved a crash that could occur when Portal was set to play at login. - Fixed a bug that could cause playback or the Library to open unexpectedly when using Shortcuts. - The menu bar icon now appears correctly at launch when Portal is set to Menu Bar Only. - Resolved a crash that could occur on devices where head motion data is not available. - Fixed animation glitches and sequencing issues that could make transitions less smooth. - Addressed issues with Circadian Flow playback and the solar header animation when played after midnight. - Corrected playlist and Library syncing issues, including locked portal behaviour and next/previous playback states. - Fixed positioning quirks with the search box at narrow screen widths. - Portal now updates when your system clock is changed in System Settings. As always, we’re incredibly grateful to everyone that flagged bugs and put forward suggestions that planted the seeds for the aforementioned improvements. Thank you for helping us improve and push Portal forward :) Very best wishes, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim – Team Portal PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app

They say make hay while the sun shines and we’re doing just that. Hot on the heels of our Circadian Flow release, we’re back with another big one. To coincide with macOS Tahoe, we’re thrilled to introduce our new Liquid Glass design - our most significant design evolution yet - alongside a host of other improvements that we hope will wow and delight in equal measure. Here’s what’s new: - New Liquid Glass Design: building on the biophilic design philosophy at the heart of the Portal experience, Liquid Glass brings the fluidity, physicality, and atmospheric effect of the natural world throughout the app, instilling a deeper sense of presence and connection with the world outside. You’ll discover a redesigned Menu Bar Player, plus controls and panels that beautifully react to light and movement. To experience Liquid Glass at its best, you’ll need macOS Tahoe or later. - Sidebar Improvements: transitions are now silky smooth, with fresh new collection headers. - Circadian Flow Enhancements: the Circadian Flow sidebar now features a dynamic solar arc header that mirrors the sun’s path at your local time of day. - Environment Controls: a beautiful new way to visualise and manage Portal’s display, audio, and lighting settings. - Tahoe Ready: fully compatible and tuned for macOS 26. - Nanoleaf Improvements: better discovery and more resilient error handling, keeping your lights shining bright and connected. - New Support Tab in Settings: making it easier to find help and flag troublesome issues. And here’s what’s new to v1.7.1: - The Circadian Flow sidebar header now transitions if left open throughout the day - a small touch inspired by how you're using it :) - Environment Control tooltip now appears the first time you play a portal, making it easier to discover and use. - Improved Environment Control toggle spacing for a cleaner, more comfortable feel. - Sidebar tile sizing issues that could occur when the sidebar is open have now been fixed. - Fixes a crash that could occur specifically on macOS 14, when the Circadian Flow sidebar is opened. - Refreshed and improved onboarding. - Resolves an issue that could cause Circadian Flow to be incorrect after midnight. We can’t wait for you to explore and discover everything we've included in this update. If you have any questions or there’s anything we can help with, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app we’d love to hear from you. As always, a heartfelt thanks for all your support and helping make this all possible. Stay glassy ;) Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal. PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, please get in touch.

They say make hay while the sun shines and we’re doing just that. Hot on the heels of our Circadian Flow release, we’re back with another big one. To coincide with macOS Tahoe, we’re thrilled to introduce our new Liquid Glass design - our most significant design evolution yet - alongside a host of other improvements that we hope will wow and delight in equal measure. Here’s what’s new: *New Liquid Glass Design* – building on the biophilic design philosophy at the heart of the Portal experience, Liquid Glass brings the fluidity, physicality, and atmospheric effect of the natural world throughout the app, instilling a deeper sense of presence and connection with the world outside. You’ll discover a redesigned Menu Bar Player, plus controls and panels that beautifully react to light and movement. To experience Liquid Glass in all its glory, you’ll need macOS Tahoe or later. *Sidebar Improvements* - transitions are now silky smooth, with fresh new collection headers. *Circadian Flow Enhancements* - the Circadian Flow sidebar now features a dynamic solar arc header that mirrors the sun’s path at your local time of day. *Environment Controls* - a beautiful new way to visualise and manage Portal’s display, audio, and lighting settings. *Tahoe Ready* - fully compatible and tuned for macOS 26. *Nanoleaf Improvements* - better discovery and more resilient error handling, keeping your lights shining bright and connected. *New Support Tab in Settings* - making it easier to find help and flag troublesome issues. We can’t wait for you to explore everything this update has to offer. If you have any questions or there’s anything we can help with, please drop us a line at [hello@portal.app](mailto:hello@portal.app) we’d love to hear from you. As always, thank you for all your support and being part of the Portal journey. Stay glassy ;) Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal. PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, please get in touch.

The long, sunshine-filled days of summer are here to brighten our days - and so is our latest update :) This release introduces "Circadian Flow" - one of our most ambitious features yet - along with a host of improvements & bug fixes. Whether you're easing into the day, deep in flow, or winding down at night, we hope this update helps you feel more in tune with nature's rhythm and brings a greater sense of harmony to your day. **New Features** *Circadian Flow* Over 6 years in the making, Circadian Flow is born from a dream to bring nature's beautiful ebb & flow back into our lives. It syncs Portal with your local time of day, flowing from dawn to dusk and into the stillness of night, by seamlessly playing a sequence of portals that mirror the natural progression of light and ambience through the day. Rooted in circadian science & inspired by nature's quiet cadence, Circadian Flow is designed to gently align your internal clock to the natural tempo of the day - to support circadian health, lift energy, enhance focus, and bring a sense of joy to daily life. Especially on long days cooped up indoors. For the best experience, we recommend granting location permissions so Portal can more accurately determine your local time of day. Your location data is used only for this purpose, locally on your device - never stored or shared. Settings > General > Location Access *Play Collection* You can now play entire collections. Set your preferred duration, and Portal will seamlessly transition from one scene to the next. *Play Favourites* Have a set of go-to favourites? Now you can play them all in one seamless flow - with just a click. *Audio Normalisation* This new feature balances volume levels between different portals, making transitions smoother and less jarring. Settings > Audio > Normalisation You can now choose between: Dynamic - the classic Portal experience with authentic, location-specific volume levels Balanced - evens out volume across portals and gently lifts quieter ones Flat - flattens out dynamic changes even more **Improvements** - You can now skip to the previous/next portal in a collection via the arrow icons (as well as via keyboard or the shortcut: cmd + ←/→) - A cleaner & faster loading Library - Lighting and audio transitions are now even more responsive - The Focus, Create, & Escape collections have moved to their own dedicated section in the Library **Bug Fixes** - Fixed an issue that could cause offline portals to play at the wrong volume - Fixed a bug where incomplete iOS purchases weren't correctly picked up on macOS - Fixed an issue that could cause audio playback to get stuck after using the mic on macOS 15.5 - huge thanks to fellow Brit, Tom, for helping us debug this one - Fixed a bug that could cause crashes when resizing windows - Fixed a rare issue where audio continued to play when rapidly switching between portals - Corrected layout issues for portals embedded in articles *New to v1.6.2* - Improved layout and search results to make Open Access portals easier to discover - Fixed a first use crash - Fixed a bug that caused search results to show as "Untitled Scene" - Fixed an issue where timed playlist transitions wouldn't work in some situations - Improved loading times for Library & Circadian Flow - Permission errors in lighting settings when local network access is denied now identified - Fixed an issue where sheets do not display correctly on macOS 14 - Fixed an issue that could cause crashes when waking your Mac from sleep A massive thank you to everyone who has helped test, shape, and inspire these updates - especially our beta testers who gave "Circadian Flow" its first outing in the wild. Your feedback has been simply amazing :) As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, we're all ears. Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim – Team Portal PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, drop us a line at hello@portal.app

The long, sunshine-filled days of summer are here - and so is our latest update that's all about helping you feel more in tune with nature's rhythm and bringing a greater sense of flow to your day. This release introduces "Circadian Flow" - one of our most ambitious features to date - along with several improvements, and bug fixes :) Whether you're easing into the day, deep in flow, or winding down at night, we hope this update helps you feel more connected to the wild world beyond your walls. **New Features** *Circadian Flow* Over 6 years in the making, Circadian Flow is born from a dream to bring nature's beautiful rhythm, its ebb and flow, back into our daily lives. This new feature syncs Portal with your local time of day, flowing from dawn to dusk and into the stillness of night, by seamlessly playing portals that mirror the natural progression of light and ambience throughout the day. Rooted in circadian science and inspired by nature's quiet cadence, Circadian Flow transforms your environment to gently align your internal clock to the natural tempo of the day - supporting circadian health, lifting energy, enhancing focus, and bringing a sense of harmony to daily life. Especially on long days cooped up indoors. For the best experience, we recommend granting location permissions so Portal can more accurately determine your local sunrise and sunset times. Your location data is used only for this purpose, locally on your device - never stored or shared. Settings > General > Location Access *Play Collection* For those who like to roam, you can now play entire collections and enjoy a curated journey through some of the world's most beautiful places. Set your preferred duration, and Portal will seamlessly shift from one scene to the next - guiding you across untouched landscapes and distant shores throughout your day. *Play Favourites* Have a set of go-to favourites? Now you can play them all in one seamless flow - with just a single click. *Audio Normalisation* If you've ever been startled by sudden changes in volume between portals, this one's for you. Audio Normalisation balances volume levels across different portals, making transitions feel smoother and less jarring. Settings > Audio > Normalisation You can now choose between: - Dynamic - the classic Portal experience with authentic, location-specific volume levels - Balanced - evens out volume across portals and gently lifts quieter ones - Flat - more normalisation flattening out dynamic changes even more **Improvements** - Not feeling the vibes, you can now skip to the previous/next scene in a collection via the arrows icons (or the shortcut: cmd + ←/→) - A cleaner Library & faster loading Library - Lighting and audio transitions are now even more responsive - The Focus, Create & Escape collections have moved from the Library header to their own dedicated section **Bug Fixes** - Fixed an issue that could cause offline scenes to play at the wrong volume - Resolved a bug where unfinished iOS purchases weren't correctly picked up on macOS - Fixed an issue that could cause audio playback to get stuck after using the mic on macOS 15.5 - huge thanks to fellow Brit, Tom for helping us track this one down - Addressed a bug that could cause crashes when resizing windows - Fixed a rare issue where audio continued to play when rapidly switching between portals - Corrected layout issues for scenes embedded in articles - Fixes an audio issue that could cause Portal to crash when your Mac wakes up from sleep A gigantic thank you to everyone who has helped test, shape and inspire these updates - especially our beta testers who gave "Circadian Flow" its first outing in the wild. Your feedback continues to make all the difference. As always, if you have any questions or ideas, we're all ears :) Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim – Team Portal PS. If you’d like to help us beta test our Apple TV app, drop us a line at hello@portal.app

The long, sunshine-filled days of summer are well and truly here - and so is our latest update, designed to help you feel more in tune with nature’s rhythm and bring a greater sense of flow to your day. This release introduces “Circadian Flow” - one of our most ambitious features to date - along with several much-requested additions, improvements, and the obligatory bug fixes :) Whether you’re easing into the day, deep in flow, or winding down at night, we hope this update helps you feel more connected to the wild world beyond your walls. **New Features** *Circadian Flow* Over 6 years in the making, Circadian Flow is born from a dream to bring nature’s beautiful rhythm, its ebb and flow, back into our daily lives. This new feature synchronises Portal with your local time of day, flowing from dawn to dusk and into the stillness of night, by seamlessly playing portals that mirror the natural progression of light and ambience throughout the day. Rooted in circadian science and inspired by the rhythm of the natural world, Circadian Flow transforms your environment to gently align your internal clock to the natural tempo of the day - supporting circadian health, lifting energy, enhancing focus, and bringing a sense of joy, and harmony to everyday life. Especially on long days cooped up indoors. For the best experience, we recommend granting Portal access to your location, so Portal can more accurately determine your local sunrise and sunset times. Your location data is used only for this purpose, locally on your device - never stored or shared. Settings > General > Location Access *Play Collection* For those who like to roam, you can now play entire collections and enjoy a curated journey through some of the world’s most beautiful places. Set your preferred duration, and Portal will seamlessly shift from one scene to the next - guiding you across untouched landscapes and distant shores throughout your day. *Play Favourites* Have a set of go-to favourites? Now you can play them all in one seamless flow - with just a single click. *Audio Normalisation* If you’ve ever been startled by sudden changes in volume between portals, this one’s for you. Audio Normalisation balances volume levels across different portals, making transitions feel smoother and less jarring. Settings > Audio > Normalisation You can now choose between: - Natural - the classic Portal experience with authentic, location-specific volume levels - Balanced - evens out volume across portals and gently lifts quieter ones - Flat - more normalisation flattening out dynamic changes even more **Improvements** - Not feeling the vibes, you can now skip to the previous/next scene in a collection via the arrows icons (or the shortcut: cmd + ←/→) - A cleaner Library & faster loading Library - Lighting and audio transitions are now even more responsive - The Focus, Create & Escape collections have moved from the Library header to their own dedicated section **Bug Fixes** - Fixed an issue that could cause offline scenes to play at the wrong volume - Resolved a bug where unfinished iOS purchases weren’t correctly picked up on macOS - Fixed an issue that could cause audio playback to get stuck after using the mic on macOS 15.5 - huge thanks to fellow Brit, Tom for helping us track this one down - Addressed a bug that could cause crashes when resizing windows - Fixed a rare issue where audio continued to play when rapidly switching between portals - Corrected layout issues for scenes embedded in articles - Fixes an audio issue that could cause Portal to crash when your Mac wakes up from sleep A gigantic thank you to everyone who has helped test, shape and inspire these updates - especially our beta testers who gave "Circadian Flow" its first outing in the wild. Your feedback continues to make all the difference. As always, if you have any questions or ideas, we’re all ears at hello@portal.app Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim – Team Portal

As the world stirs from its winter slumber, we’ve been working behind the scenes on a little spring clean - sweeping away some winter bugs and adding a touch of polish for the season ahead. **Bug Fixes** - Fixed an issue where Hue lights wouldn’t connect properly if your computers device name was a little *too* long (over 40 characters) - now they’ll work no matter how creative you get with naming! - Resolved a quirk where the background colour in the audio settings modal didn’t always appear correctly - transparency is restored. - Fixed an issue that could cause the toolbar to occasionally remain visible in fullscreen mode on macOS Sequoia - now it will fade away when it’s supposed to. **Improvements** - Enhanced scroll performance for that silky smooth experience. - Added new AppleScript commands - now you can toggle playback, audio, desktop mode, and lighting from scripts. - Improved Hue discovery in situations where multiple network interfaces are available, so your lighting setup is as smooth as possible. Following a couple of recent network issues, we’ve also made the following changes: - Added “Contact Support” and “Check Status” links to all error screens, keeping you informed and making it easier to get help. - Introduced a new “Go Off-Grid” button - so if Portal runs into network issues, you can stay immersed in your favourite offline escapes. - Added a “Go Online” button for when Portal is forced offline, so reconnecting is just a click away… - Included some “fallback” visuals for situations when Portal is offline and has no cached images. - Improved the error messages that get shown when Portal’s servers are unavailable. Finally, a heartfelt *merci* to Rémi from France, who helped us track down a tricky bug that, unbeknownst to us, prevented Portal from connecting with Philips Hue lights in specific circumstances. And to everyone who reached out during the recent network issues - your patience, kindness, and support never cease to amaze us. It’s moments like these that remind us how incredibly special this community is. Portal wouldn’t be the same without you! Many thanks as always, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

As winter settles in and the holiday season fills the air, we’re delighted to introduce Portal Guest Passes - a way for you to share the magic of Portal Premium, free, with those who matter most in your life. This update also includes some important bug fixes and improvements, ensuring that wherever you escape to this winter, it’s the very best experience we can provide. **Portal Guest Passes** Whether it’s helping a friend find focus, a loved one sleep better, or gifting someone more peace and calm. Portal Guest Passes let you to share a free month of Portal Premium to anyone you think might benefit :) Currently available to Premium Members on Mac. Coming to iPhone & iPad in the future. **Bug Fixes & Improvements** - Fixed an issue where Portal could fail to select the correct audio playback format until the output device was changed. - Fixed a bug introduced in Portal 1.4.0 that may cause cache size limits to not always be respected. - Fixed an issue that could cause the currently playing scene to freeze during playback due to missing a files. - Improved audio logging for better troubleshooting. - We’ve added a maximum width to Library banners to avoid stretching on larger window sizes. - Instances where capsule buttons would show in hover state when not quite hovering on them has now been fixed. The holiday season is a time of joy, but we know it can also bring its share of stress and anxiety. We hope Portal can be there for you and your loved ones whenever you need a bit of an escape from it all. Instead of warming your cockles beside a crackling fire this winter, why not escape to the tropical beaches of St. Lucia, the cloud forests of Costa Rica, or even bask in the awe-inspiring glow of an Icelandic volcanic eruption? From our families to yours, thank you for your on-going support. We wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyful holiday season. Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

As winter settles in and the holiday season fills the air, we’re delighted to introduce Portal Guest Passes - a way for you to share the magic of Portal Premium, free, with those who matter most in your life. This update also includes some important bug fixes and improvements, ensuring that wherever you escape to this winter, it’s the very best experience we can provide. **Portal Guest Passes** Whether it’s helping a friend find focus, a loved one sleep better, or gifting someone more peace and calm. Portal Guest Passes let you to share a free month of Portal Premium to anyone you think might benefit :) Currently available to Premium Members on Mac. Coming to iPhone & iPad in the future. **Bug Fixes & Improvements** - Fixed an issue where Portal could fail to select the correct audio playback format until the output device was changed. - Fixed a bug introduced in Portal 1.4.0 that may cause cache size limits to not always be respected. - Fixed an issue that could cause the currently playing scene to freeze during playback due to missing a files. - Improved audio logging for better troubleshooting. - We’ve added a maximum width to Library banners to avoid stretching on larger window sizes. - Instances where capsule buttons would show in hover state when not quite hovering on them has now been fixed. The holiday season is a time of joy, but we know it can also bring its share of stress and anxiety. We hope Portal can be there for you and your loved ones whenever you need a bit of an escape from it all. Instead of warming your cockles beside a crackling fire this winter, why not escape to the tropical beaches of St. Lucia, the cloud forests of Costa Rica, or even bask in the awe-inspiring glow of an Icelandic volcanic eruption? From our families to yours, thank you for your on-going support. We wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and joyful holiday season. Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and Diwali, we wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude for all the incredible support and feedback we’ve received since launching Portal on Mac last year. And so, this release brings two of your most-requested features over the past year (and, of course, the obligatory bug fixes). We hope you thoroughly enjoy them! **Desktop Widgets** We’re delighted to announce Portal for Mac now supports widgets! Easy control and access to your favourite portals with just a click with these two widgets: - Now Playing: effortlessly play or pause your current portal right from your desktop. - Open Portal: instantly jump straight to your favourite portals with a single click. Control-click your Desktop > ‘Edit Widgets’ N.B. We’re working on bringing widget support to our iPhone and iPad apps in the future too, so please stay tuned! **Reorderable Favourites** Organise your favourite portals exactly how you like - whether by time-of-day, location or even colour! You can now drag & drop them in whatever order tickles your fancy. Add your most-loved portals to your ‘Favourites’ by tapping the heart icon, then drag and drop re-order them in the 'Your Favourites' section of the library. **Membership Information Improvements** Improved clarity and added information for new customers starting a free trial, as well as returning customers who wish to try Portal again. **macOS Sequoia Display Bug Fix** We’ve fixed a bug that could cause motion visuals to not play reliably when switching between different external displays. A special shout-out to Ryan from Australia for flagging this issue and helping us resolve it! **Improved Audio Reliability** We've fixed an issue that may have caused Portal to crash when switching between different audio outputs or waking from sleep with different audio routing. It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since Portal landed on Mac! In that time, we’ve been blown away by your incredible feedback and honoured to have been shortlisted for Mac App of the Year. However, none of this would have been possible without your support, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you - and happy Thanksgiving :) Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

Autumn is upon us - the leaves are changing, the birdsong is shifting as flocks migrate to warmer climes, and a new macOS has just arrived! To celebrate, our recent Portal for Mac v1.4 release brought new features, improvements, and fixes to help you enjoy the magic of this season of change. Changes in v1.4.1 This minor update builds on our v1.4 release with a few additional tweaks and fixes: - Nanoleaf Blocks Support: You can now enjoy full compatibility with Nanoleaf’s latest Blocks lights. - Audio Fixes: We’ve addressed some rare crashes when switching default output devices. - Settings Window Fix: Fixed a visual glitch with the scroll background appearance in the Settings window on macOS Sequoia. - Cache Cleaning Improvement: The “Clear Cache” button is now disabled while the cache is being cleaned to prevent interruptions. New Features in v1.4 - Offline Playback: Following popular demand, you can now download your favourite portals and enjoy them wherever you are, even when you've migrated off-grid! Tap the three dots on a portal screen and select "Make Available Offline." Easily manage your downloads in Settings > Storage. - Start Playback on Launch: Want Portal to start playing as soon as you log in? Now you can! Combine this with the ‘Launch at login’ option, and Portal will be there to greet you every time you start your Mac. Settings > General > Start playback on launch. Improvements in v1.4 - macOS Sequoia Support: Optimised for the newest macOS, with enhancements to security, performance, usability, and animations ensuring Portal runs as smoothly as ever. - Offline Indicator: A handy new tick icon shows which portals have been downloaded and are available offline. - Enhanced Search Integration: Portals now appear in Spotlight and Siri search results (macOS Sequoia only). - Shortcuts Support: Portal images are now accessible when setting up portals in the Shortcuts app along with a new “Open a Portal” action. - Library Enhancements: Enjoy the new scroll parallax effect on library tiles, clearer author attribution in articles, and links to external sites now underlined for easy identification. Fixes in v1.4 - An issue where Nanoleaf lights didn’t correctly transition brightness when un-synced has now been fixed. - Fixed a stall that could occur when playing previously cached videos. - Addressed several edge case bugs that caused the Library layout to look a little skew-whiff. - Removed excessive padding at the top of Library articles that begin with a heading. Compatibility Please note that Portal v1.4 does not support macOS Ventura. This will allow us to focus on delivering the very best experience possible with the latest features and functionality available on the most recent macOS versions. However, if you're unable to upgrade, please don’t worry - Portal v1.3 will continue to work on macOS Ventura for the foreseeable future. As always, we’re incredibly grateful to the Portal community for sharing your feedback and helping guide us on which features you’re most excited about as well as the things that are bugging you out. A special shout out goes to Renzo from Italy, whose sheer enthusiasm for having Portal play on launch meant we just had to sneak it into this release! If there’s a feature you’d love to see or a bug that needs squashing, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [hello@portal.app](mailto:hello@portal.app) - we’d love to hear from you :) Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

Autumn is upon us - the leaves are changing, the birdsong is shifting as flocks migrate to warmer climes, and a new macOS has just arrived! To celebrate, today’s release brings new features, improvements, and fixes to complement this season of change. **New Features** - Offline Playback: Following popular demand, you can now download your favourite portals and enjoy them wherever you are, even when you've migrated off-grid! Tap the three dots on a portal screen and select "Make Available Offline." Easily manage your downloads in Settings > Storage. - Start Playback on Launch: Want Portal to start playing as soon as you log in? Now you can! Combine this with the ‘Launch at login’ option, and Portal will be there to greet you every time you start your Mac. Settings > General > Start playback on launch. **Improvements** - macOS Sequoia Support: Optimised for the newest macOS, with enhancements to security, performance, usability, and animations ensuring Portal runs as smoothly as ever. - Offline Indicator: A handy new tick icon shows which portals have been downloaded and are available offline. - Enhanced Search Integration: Portals now appear in Spotlight and Siri search results (macOS Sequoia only). - Shortcuts Support: Portal images are now accessible when setting up portals in the Shortcuts app along with a new “Open a Portal” action to allow launching Portal to a specific location. - Library Enhancements: Enjoy the new scroll parallax effect on library tiles, clearer author details on articles, and links to external sites now underlined for easy identification. **Fixes** - An issue where Nanoleaf lights didn’t correctly transition brightness when un-synced has now been fixed. - Fixed a stall that could occur when playing previously cached videos. - Addressed several edge case bugs that caused the Library layout to look a little skew-whiff. - Removed excessive padding at the top of Library articles that begin with a heading. **Compatibility** Please note that Portal v1.4.0 does not support macOS Ventura. This will allow us to focus on delivering the very best experience possible with the latest features and functionality available on the most recent macOS versions. However, if you're unable to upgrade, please don’t worry - Portal v1.3.0 will continue to work on macOS Ventura for the foreseeable future. As always, we’re incredibly grateful to the Portal community for sharing your feedback and helping guide us on which features you’re most excited about as well as the things that are bugging you out. A special shout out goes to Renzo from Italy, who’s sheer enthusiasm for having Portal play on launch meant we just had to sneak it into this release! If there’s a feature you’d love to see or a bug that needs squashing, please don’t hesitate to reach out at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you :) Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.

Summer has finally arrived here in the UK, and to celebrate one of our favourite seasons, today's release is chock-full of new features, improvements and fixes that we hope will open up new possibilities, new perspectives, and also brighten up your day :) **New Costa Rica Collection** This stunning new collection of portals takes you right into the heart of Costa Rica’s pristine rainforests. Specifically captured to evoke feelings of escape, exploration and soft fascination, it draws on the latest research on the restorative power of nature on our minds - to help lower stress, boost creativity, and enhance your focus & concentration. **New Features** - Display spanning is finally here! When using Portal across multiple displays you can now select to have the scene flow seamlessly across all your screens. Settings > Display > Layout. - Landscape, portrait or ultra-wide - however you like your displays - your chosen scene will now always be picture perfect with Intelligent Framing ensuring you get the very best view. - Nanoleaf’s new Skylights are now fully supported, bringing incredible brightness & immersion to all your favourite portals. Settings > Lighting. - Beautiful binaural playback is now available through stereo speakers. **Improvements** - An exclusive discount from our friends at Nanoleaf is now available, and can be used across the entire Nanoleaf product line. Head to Settings > Lighting. - All circular portal tiles now have all relevant menu options available: you can play/pause, favourite/unfavourite & share. - Author labels have been introduced for quotes used in articles & portal descriptions. **Fixes** - An issue that could lead to lower than optimal resolution visuals being used on portrait displays has been fixed. - Screens no longer freeze when mirroring across multiple monitors. - Fixes have been put in place to ensure Portal is silky smooth when being played across multiple displays. A massive thank you to everyone who has helped make this release possible, from our hosts & team in Costa Rica, the awesome folks at Nanoleaf and all of our Mac beta testers, who from the very beginning encouraged us to support display spanning and multi-display orientation - here’s to all of you! Wherever you may be in the world, we hope you thoroughly enjoy all that this release brings. If you have any questions or there’s anything at all we can help with, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at hello@portal.app Many thanks, Andy, Alex, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

Over the past month we’ve taken the opportunity to reflect and excitingly plot and plan the year ahead. If you’re interested you can find our thoughts for 2024 here: https://portal.app/campfire/thoughts-for-2024 Although, it hasn’t all been planning - we’ve packed this release with improvements and fixes for a number of issues you’ve helped flag. Improvements - Better resolution selection for screens in portrait orientation. - You no longer need to relaunch the app after you ‘Clear Cache’. - ‘Support Info’ now includes better diagnostic data. - ‘Support Info’ exports now have improved customer feedback and error handling. Fixes - Philips Hue lights which use IP address connections are now more reliable. - Fixes lighting discovery and connection issues on new macOS versions. - Network connection errors which prevent motion visuals playing are better identified and retried. - The specific loading error preventing motion visuals playing is now shown in Portal’s UI. - Audio streaming now waits for a network connection and can better recover from network errors. - Collection subtitles in the ‘All Portal’ section of the library are no longer cut off. - Portals with longer names now are better spaced when displayed on smaller screens. - The ‘Now Playing’ bar height is now correct across different screen sizes. - Portal’s menu bar window now positions itself correctly when opened on secondary displays. - Fixes a rare crash when retrying audio downloads - Audio downloads that are being retried are now cancelled correctly when stopping playback A special shout out to Don from the US and Harbin from Australia who have been amazing in helping us debug some of the thornier issues above - thanks guys! As always, if there's anything we can do to improve your experience, whether that's a bug fix or a new feature, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, we hope you’re excited for what the year might bring :) Many thanks, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

Happy New Year everyone! We’re kicking off with a small release that includes a fix for a pesky bug that snuck in over the festive period, and some improvements that will help us better diagnose and resolve cross-platform Membership access issues. - Fixes an issue that prevented ALT/option + clicking on a portal embedded in an article from commencing playback. - The “Restore Purchase” option is now clearer when access issues arise. - “Restore Purchase” is now also accessible via Settings > Membership. - Support Info now includes more information that will improve our ability to debug access issues when “Restore Purchase” is unsuccessful. - Improved clarity for new customers starting a free trial. Thank you to everyone that took the time to share their feedback and steer us towards the improvements above. It really is a massive help! So if something is not quite right or there’s anything we can do to improve your experience, however big or small, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you. Thanks as always, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

This Friday 22 December we’re excited to release “Iceland: The Fire Within” - our stunning new collection which captures the awe-inspiring power and majesty of the Lilti-Hrútur volcanic eruption that took place in July 2023. In anticipation, today’s update includes bug fixes and some long awaited audio & UI improvements that we hope will take your enjoyment of all the new portals to come, as well as all your old favourites, to another level. Improvements - We’ve added a head avatar in the Audio controls that follows your head movement whenever Dynamic Spatial Audio is enabled - so you know where your head’s at. - You can recenter your orientation within a portal by tapping on the head avatar. - Improved support for non-Apple headphones. - Improved detection of multi-channel audio outputs and support for manually changing your audio output in the Audio settings. - Your cursor now auto-hides after 2 seconds of no movement when the UI is hidden whilst playing Portal in-window (thanks for the suggestion Pole to Pole). Fixes - Fixes an issue that occasionally required customers with active Memberships to restore their purchase. - Downloading error that occurred if your macOS username included a ‘space’ is resolved. - Audio format no longer displays as mono unexpectedly. - Picture perfect image quality for article tiles shown inside collections & articles. - Clicking the info icon attached to a button now triggers the button action. - FAQ links in the Audio settings are fixed. - Issue resulting in some portals missing tags is no more. - The Lighting settings button now links directly to the Lighting Settings screen when running on Sonoma. Thank you to everyone who helped us get to the bottom of these pesky bugs - we’re always flabbergasted by your kindness, patience & understanding! A special mention to David from Ulm, Germany who helped us resolve an especially troublesome issue. If you’ve encountered any bugs or have any feedback, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app In the meantime, we hope you love the new collection when it lands! Happy holidays, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

With today’s release we’re delighted to launch our Open Access programme which makes a selection of our best portals available for free each month, no time limits & no commitments. It’s another exciting step for us towards our mission, to make great surroundings and the benefits they can bring to people’s lives accessible to all. We’ve also released four stunning new portals along with some features, improvements, and small bug fixes. New portals Find our 4 newest portals ready and waiting for you in the ‘Greatest Escapes’ collection: * Prepare to be awe-struck by two portals showcasing July’s volcanic eruption in Iceland with more to follow. * Spring has sprung early! Our Bluebell Woodland & Ancient Beech Canopy portals, captured earlier this year, provide a welcome escape from the colder winter months ahead. Features & Improvements * You can now launch Portal at login: Settings > Launch at Login. * Portal is now easier to share with friends and loved ones. * Locked icons now help avoid confusion over what’s available for non-Members. Fixes * Tag layout better fits smaller window sizes. * Media controls now show on smaller window sizes. * “Play” button no longer shows locked portals. * Animation glitches in Library articles are no more. * Transitions between portals in the menu-bar app are back to being silky smooth. * Favourites now always show up in the Explorer window. * The headphone status now correctly reflects when mono audio playback. Massive thanks as ever for your incredible feedback and support - it simply wouldn’t be possible without it. If you have any questions or there’s anything we can help with, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app We hope you love all that we’ve got in store for you in this release. Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

This release includes several bug fixes in addition to lighting, keyboard shortcut and Library improvements that will hopefully brighten up your day :) Improvements: - Improved reliability when connecting to Nanoleaf lights. - Instantly open Portal in full screen with this new shortcut: control + ⌘ command + F - Beautiful new “poster” style article tiles in the Library show longer titles and descriptions as well as bigger images. - We’ve tidied up the “Help” menu to make it easier to get assistance should you ever need it. - Scrolling lists in the library now snap to the edge of items when on macOS Sonoma. - You’ll see more useful information when Portal is unable to fetch information from the App Store. Fixes: - Your default wallpaper now reverts back when you switch off desktop syncing whilst playing Portal. - Fixes an animation glitch that could occur when opening deep links to Portal scenes. - Portal no longer sometimes shows the toolbar when in fullscreen mode on macOS Sonoma. - Article titles could lose their padding at certain screen widths. - Fixes an issue that could cause pagination arrows in the library not to work correctly on Sonoma. - Fixes an issue that could cause the Fullscreen menu item to disappear. - Fixes an issue that could cause the interface not to be shown correctly when navigating back in fullscreen mode. A big hand goes out to everyone who has flagged and helped us track down these pesky bugs. And a special mention to Heiko from Frankfurt, Germany who first requested the full screen shortcut when the app was still in its beta phase - we got there in the end! If there’s anything we can do to improve your experience, whether that’s a bug fix or a new feature we don’t currently support, please email us at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you. Thanks as always, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

This release is jam packed with some fantastic new features, a host of useful improvements and an assortment of fixes that will ensure Portal is macOS Sonoma ready - enjoy :) Dynamic (Head Tracked) Spatial Audio Thanks to changes available in macOS Sonoma, the magic of Dynamic (head tracked) Spatial Audio can now be experienced on Mac! To get started connect your compatible AirPods or Beats headphones and open Settings > Audio > Spatial Audio > Head Tracked Fullscreen In-Window Visuals We've now introduced the ability to play Portal’s visuals fullscreen in-window within the app. Just select your scene, click “Set Surroundings” and then click anywhere on the scene to hide the interface, click again to go back. Now you can enjoy Portal’s visuals integrated into your desktop, in-window or both simultaneously. Pro-tip: in-window support works great when Portal’s in fullscreen mode. Visual Improvements For those who prefer not to have Portal’s visuals sync and replace their current wallpaper, you can now control this via Settings > Desktop > Sync Wallpaper Audio Improvements - Portal now better supports single channel mono audio output devices. - We've improved the handling of situations where headphones automatically switch to mono mode when the microphone is in-use. - The audio settings screen has been streamlined to avoid confusion and include some helpful hints. Lighting Improvements - You can now customise the relative brightness of each of your connected smart lighting connections, just open Settings > Lighting > Connections > i > Brightness - Improved reliability of lighting connection checks. Keyboard Shortcut Improvements - Instantly exit the Library and immerse yourself in your current active scene with this new shortcut: option + space General Improvements - We've made some caching improvements to speed up loading times at launch and avoid issues where Portal may become unresponsive if the AppStore is unavailable. - Portal no longer attempts to restore your desktop background on launch if desktop syncing is turned off. - There is now a downloading message that shows on the desktop and the “Set Surroundings” button whilst video content is loading. - A progress indicator now shows whenever “Support Info” is requested. - We’ve made performance improvements to keep Library scrolling buttery smooth. Fixes - Fixes an issue where the headphone status might not refresh in certain circumstances. - Fixes a typo in "Support Info" (thanks for spotting that one Rachelle!) - Fixes animation glitches on Sonoma. - Fixes desktop background sizing on Sonoma. - Fixes macOS menu bar tinting on Sonoma. - Fixes a crash that could occur on macOS Sonoma. - Fixes scrolling flicker that could occur in some collection screens. - Fixes screen flashing that could occur in some rare situations. A massive thank you goes out to our beta testers who helped road test the features, improvements and fixes included in this release. If it weren’t for their time, patience and dedication to the cause, this release would not have been possible! If something has slipped the net or you have any suggestions on future improvements, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at hello@portal.app - we’d love to hear from you! Thanks as always, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu - Team Portal.

Huge thanks to Zlat and Marco who spotted a couple of nasty bugs! You’ve guessed what’s next…here comes the bug spray: - Fixes an issue that prevented the Library from opening via the Menu Bar App. - Resolves an issue where clicking on the Desktop with the Menu Bar window open would not always close it. - The “reload” button that shows on error screens now correctly reloads the content. Thank you again guys for having our back and ensuring everything remains shipshape :) If you happen to spot anything that’s not quite right, please drop us a line at hello@portal.app and we’ll jump right on it! Much love from the four of us, Andy, Nick, Tim & Stu