# What the glowing logo means

The logo on the front is not decoration. On a device with no screen it is the
only way to see, rather than hear, what is going on — which matters most when
the device is *not* talking: while it connects, while it thinks, or when
something has gone wrong.

Every app uses the same vocabulary, so a look means the same thing everywhere.

## The vocabulary

| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gentle twinkle | Ready and waiting for you |
| Steady green | The microphone is on and capturing your voice |
| Slow cyan breathing | Thinking — waiting on a reply |
| Light moving with the sound | Playing, or talking to you |
| Slow yellow breathing | Paused, or open but not started yet |
| A spinner going round | Connecting to something |
| Flashing amber | Someone is trying to reach you, or a voice message is waiting |
| One dim, steady amber light while switched off | A voice message is waiting — turn it on and open Friends |
| Pulsing red | Something has failed |

## Reading the spinner

The spinner's colour says *what* it is connecting to, which is the difference
between "wait a moment" and "something needs fixing":

- **White** — waiting for a network connection.
- **Blue** — Bluetooth, during setup and pairing.
- **Magenta** — reaching our servers.
- **Cyan** — calling a friend.

A spinner that never resolves is the thing to look at. White that persists
usually means WiFi; magenta that persists usually means the internet connection
beyond your router.

## Steady green is worth knowing

**Steady green always means the microphone is capturing.** It is the same green
in every app, and no app can show green for anything else — so if you want to
know whether a Peko Pal is listening, that is the single thing to look for.
Playback apps never show it, because they never open the microphone.

## Good to know

- Some apps use the light as the feature rather than as status — the glowlight's
  colours, the night light, Baby Smash's play colours, the walkie-talkie's
  channel colour. Those are doing their job, not reporting a state.
- "Paused" and "open but not playing yet" share the same yellow breathing on
  purpose. Inside a media app there is deliberately no distinction between the
  two.
- All of these are capped by the brightness ceiling you set in the Peko Pal app,
  except the dim amber "message waiting" light shown while the device is off. That
  one is set low on purpose so it is easy on the battery.
- A switched-off Peko Pal checks for new messages about every five minutes; see
  the Power, battery and charging article.