What is this blue pulsating circle?

We are moving from the Stock thread to the Photoshop thread.

Application: Adobe Photoshop
Platform: macOS
Issue: Persistent / flashing UI element remains visible outside Photoshop

Description

When working in Adobe Photoshop, a blue circle sometimes appears around the Starter Tutorials / Discover area in Photoshop.

The problem is that the blue circle does not disappear when I leave Photoshop. It can remain visible on top of other applications, including web browsers and other macOS programs.

The blue circle also appears to blink or animate continuously. It behaves as if Photoshop has created a floating UI element that remains at the very top level of the macOS interface, even though Photoshop is no longer the active application.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Adobe Photoshop on macOS.
2. Open a document or work with an existing Photoshop document.
3. Access or encounter the Starter Tutorials / Discover interface.
4. A blue circular highlight appears around the relevant tutorial/Discover element.
5. Switch to another application, for example Safari, Chrome, or another program.
6. In some cases, the blue circle remains visible above the other application.
7. The circle may continue blinking/animating even though Photoshop is no longer the active application.

Expected Behavior

The blue circle and any related tutorial/Discover UI elements should be completely contained within Photoshop.

When Photoshop loses focus or is minimized, no Photoshop UI element should remain visible above other applications.

Actual Behavior

The blue circle remains visible as a floating overlay above other macOS applications.

It can also continue blinking/animating, making it appear as if Photoshop has created an always-on-top UI element.

Impact

This is particularly disruptive because the overlay is not restricted to Photoshop. It interferes with other applications and can remain visible while working in a completely different program.

It also gives the impression that Photoshop has left a UI process or overlay running at the macOS system level after switching applications.

Additional Information

The issue does not occur every time, but when it occurs, the overlay can persist until Photoshop is closed or otherwise reset.

It may potentially be related to the interaction between Photoshop's Starter Tutorials / Discover UI and macOS window/overlay management.

Please investigate whether the tutorial/Discover highlight is being incorrectly assigned an always-on-top window level or otherwise failing to be dismissed when Photoshop loses application focus.

Severity: Medium — significant UI disruption, especially when working across multiple applications.


[Moved to Photoshop by a moderator］

Gotta love “features” like “persistent disruptive button to highlight additional new features.” What this makes this one special though is that it stays on-screen in other apps and MacOS. ...that’s class!

Issue summary: Pressing the yellow minimize button incorrectly minimizes the app into 2 Dock icons, one for the main app window (as it should) and one that is just the glowing circle outline effect for the “Explore starter tutorials in Photoshop” button. This is presumably due to the glowing circle effect being rendered as a separate window instead of another element of the application.
 

​​​​As an extra note, this means that re-opening the minimized window causes the glowing circle effect to pop in suddenly instead of smoothly with the rest of the window.

Product and version: Photoshop desktop version 27.6.0
Operating system: macOS Tahoe 26.3.1(a)
Steps to reproduce:

1. Open any file or create a new file
2. Press yellow “Minimize” button 

   

3. Look at the MacOS Dock
4. (Extra) Reopen window while looking where the glow effect should be.

Expected result: There should be 1 Photoshop window minimized to the Dock. When reopened, the glowing circle should expand as a part of the Photoshop window.
Actual result: There are 2 icons minimized to the Dock, one of the Photoshop window and one of the glowing circle. 

(Extra) When re-opened, the glowing circle icon is not visible for a short moment then suddenly pops into its place.

I posted a feature request to disable this weird thingie:

This is the culprit, indeed. I have that pulsating blue ring overlaid over any other app when I cmd-tab switch out of Photoshop.

I'm getting this too now, since the '26 update. It's only there is Photoshop is minimized, and disappears as soon as I go back into Photoshop. If I click it, Photoshop opens. But it also opens if I click the Ps icon or the minimized window so what's the point?!? MacBook Pro running 15.6.1 (24G90)
 

im having this problem too. super annoying and distracting

same issue, but it's a half-circle anchored to the center of my window, and only in photoshop