Changelog

Animation Kit Release History

Track the evolution of Animation Kit with detailed release notes, new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

v0.3.1

Version 0.3.1

August 26, 2026Feature Release
Fixed

Cache plugins (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed) delayed the front-end background's…

Cache plugins (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed) delayed the front-end background's inline scripts, so the lazy-loaded chunks resolved from the wrong URL and no background rendered. The animationKitBgData / __animationKitBgPublicPath globals are now excluded from delay-JS and combine as well.

Fixed

A stored effect id with no registered renderer

A stored effect id with no registered renderer — an effect that was removed, or a Pro effect on a site where Pro is inactive — rendered nothing at all. It now falls back to the default effect.

Fixed

The legacy antigravity effect id resolves to its registered type again,…

The legacy antigravity effect id resolves to its registered type again, so configurations saved before the id change keep their controls, live preview and picker selection.

Fixed

A saved "multiple backgrounds" flag with an empty configuration list is…

A saved "multiple backgrounds" flag with an empty configuration list is coerced off, so a dangling flag can no longer suppress the background entirely.

Fixed

Admin asset enqueue no longer assumes get_current_screen() returns a…

Admin asset enqueue no longer assumes get_current_screen() returns a screen object.

Improved

Admin pages load as lazy route chunks

Admin pages load as lazy route chunks — only the active page's code is parsed on load.

Improved

Promo images moved out of the JS bundle into assets/images/promo/,…

Promo images moved out of the JS bundle into assets/images/promo/, removing roughly 750KB of inline base64 from the admin bundle.

Improved

The live preview is debounced, so dragging a slider no longer rebuilds…

The live preview is debounced, so dragging a slider no longer rebuilds the WebGL scene on every tick.

Improved

Background engines pause their animation loop when the tab is hidden or…

Background engines pause their animation loop when the tab is hidden or the canvas scrolls off-screen, instead of tearing down and recreating the WebGL context.

Improved

The review notice seeds its install timestamp on its own screens…

The review notice seeds its install timestamp on its own screens instead of admin_init, removing one uncached database query from every admin page load.

Improved

Bundled preset asset directory scans are memoized per request.

Bundled preset asset directory scans are memoized per request.

New

A shared PHP+JS background types manifest…

A shared PHP+JS background types manifest (classes/background-types-manifest.json) as the single source of truth for the free effect list, the default effect and legacy id aliases, with development-mode drift warnings.

New

PHPUnit suite covering the premium gates; runs against lightweight…

PHPUnit suite covering the premium gates; runs against lightweight stubs with no WordPress install required.

Improved

Premium key and scope lists are centralized, so the REST input gate and…

Premium key and scope lists are centralized, so the REST input gate and the output sanitizers can no longer drift apart.

Improved

Freemius SDK 2.13.4.

Freemius SDK 2.13.4.

Improved

Tested up to WordPress 7.1.

Tested up to WordPress 7.1.

v0.3.0

Version 0.3.0

July 4, 2026Maintenance
Improved

WordPress.org trialware-compliance refactor

WordPress.org trialware-compliance refactor — premium background effects and their advanced (size/speed/motion) controls now ship entirely in Animation Kit Pro. The free plugin contains zero locked functionality; premium features are implemented in the add-on, not disabled behind a license.

Improved

Beams and Dark Veil background effects.

Beams and Dark Veil background effects.

Improved

Effect picker now shows a captured Silk preview thumbnail (WebP).

Effect picker now shows a captured Silk preview thumbnail (WebP).

v0.2.2

Version 0.2.2

June 10, 2026Feature Release
New

8 new free background effects

8 new free background effects — Color Bends, Grid Scan, Line Waves, Liquid Ether, Pixel Blast, Plasma, Prism, Soft Aurora (13 total).

New

Honors prefers-reduced-motion: reduce. When the visitor's OS-level…

Honors prefers-reduced-motion: reduce. When the visitor's OS-level reduced-motion preference is on, the WebGL mount is skipped; re-mounts automatically if they toggle the preference off mid-session.

New

Optional one-time review-request notice

Optional one-time review-request notice — shown to administrators only after 7+ days of installation and at least one saved background configuration. Three explicit choices: leave review, snooze 14 days, dismiss forever. Never blocks UI.

Fixed

REST settings endpoints now validate every incoming field against a…

REST settings endpoints now validate every incoming field against a strict per-field schema; unknown keys are dropped and string fields are length-capped. Defense-in-depth on top of the existing capability gate.

Fixed

Premium gate referenced a stale class name; the fallback branch…

Premium gate referenced a stale class name; the fallback branch checking for the Pro plugin is now correct.

Fixed

An invalid CSS selector in one background configuration no longer…

An invalid CSS selector in one background configuration no longer aborts renderer initialization for every other configuration.

Improved

$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and $_REQUEST['action'] are now properly…

$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and $_REQUEST['action'] are now properly unslashed and sanitized.

Improved

WordPress.org listing copy rewritten for clarity and search relevance…

WordPress.org listing copy rewritten for clarity and search relevance (no functional change).

Improved

Dead promotional dashboard widget that had been commented out since…

Dead promotional dashboard widget that had been commented out since 0.2.1.

v0.2.1

Version 0.2.1

May 16, 2026Maintenance
Improved

Multiple Backgrounds editor

Multiple Backgrounds editor — Animation / Display sub-tabs and aligned color controls.

Improved

Configuration name field validation and editor guidance.

Configuration name field validation and editor guidance.

Fixed

Apply Configuration now persists immediately so saved configurations…

Apply Configuration now persists immediately so saved configurations are not lost.

v0.2.0

Version 0.2.0

May 14, 2026Feature Release
New

Radar effect.

Radar effect.

Improved

Particles effect

Particles effect — renderer and admin controls.

Improved

Background admin editor (shared controls, layout, styles).

Background admin editor (shared controls, layout, styles).

Fixed

Display-rule conditional logic.

Display-rule conditional logic.

New

Translation template (POT) and JSON catalogs for localization.

Translation template (POT) and JSON catalogs for localization.

v0.1.0

Version 0.1.0

April 14, 2026Feature Release
New

Aurora effect.

Aurora effect.

v0.0.1

Version 0.0.1

April 3, 2026Maintenance
Improved

Initial release with Antigravity and Light Pillar effects and the…

Initial release with Antigravity and Light Pillar effects and the Background Animation admin screen.