Systems and methods for detecting and animating changes in application state

A non-transitory computer readable memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device having a plurality of applications, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

• receiving transition information indicating that a user-interface of an application of the plurality of applications is to be transitioned from a first state to a second state, wherein the user-interface comprises a plurality of user-interface items, and wherein transition of the user-interface from the first state to the second state comprises a change in a property of a user-interface item of the plurality of user-interface items;
• in response to receiving the transition information, obtaining from a rendering engine a value for the property of the user-interface item corresponding to the first state;
• embedding a module in the rendering engine, wherein embedding the module comprises causing the module to register with the rendering engine to declare that the module is embedded in the rendering engine so as to detect the transition of the user-interface of the application from the first state to the second state through communication from the application to the rendering engine;
• obtaining from the module a respective value for the property of the user-interface item corresponding to the second state;
• generating an animation based on a comparison between the value and the respective value;
• and
• causing the rendering engine to render the animation such that the animation is playable to transition the user-interface from the first state to the second state.

A device having a plurality of applications, the device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory configured to store instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to perform functions comprising:
• receiving transition information indicating that a user-interface of an application of the plurality of applications is to be transitioned from a first state to a second state, wherein the user-interface comprises a plurality of user-interface items, and wherein transition of the user-interface from the first state to the second state comprises a change in a property of a user-interface item of the plurality of user-interface items;
• in response to receiving the transition information, obtaining from a rendering engine a value for the property of the user-interface item corresponding to the first state;
• embedding a module in the rendering engine, wherein embedding the module comprises causing the module to register with the rendering engine to declare that the module is embedded in the rendering engine so as to detect the transition of the user-interface of the application from the first state to the second state through communication from the application to the rendering engine;
• obtaining from the module a respective value for the property of the user-interface item corresponding to the second state;
• generating an animation based on a comparison between the value and the respective value;
• and
• causing the rendering engine to render the animation such that the animation is playable to transition the user-interface from the first state to the second state.