C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL; Dr
- Android is improving its chat bubble feature on large screen devices, pinning conversations to a new, more accessible โbubble barโ at the bottom corner.
- This new bubble bar remains discreetly hidden until you swipe up on it, which then expands the most recent chat bubble for you to view.
- While the feature is currently live for tablets and foldables in the latest Android Canary build, evidence suggests it could eventually come to phones.
When youโre in a busy group chat, constantly switching apps to see the latest messages can be a pain. Androidโs chat bubble feature helps by letting you follow conversations in a floating window without leaving your current app. Unlike notifications that only show the most recent message or two, chat bubbles contain the full conversation UI. While this feature is useful, it has been poorly optimized for large-screen devices โ at least until the first Android Canary release.
In the current stable release of Android 16chat bubbles appear near the middle of the left or right side of the screen. This works fine on narrow smartphones, but itโs awkward on wider tablets. While users could move the bubbles to a more convenient spot, the latest Android Canary build introduces a more elegant solution for tablets and book-style foldables.
On large screen devices, chat bubbles are now pinned to a โbubble bar,โ a small, discreet bar anchored to the bottom-right corner of the screen. New bubbles are automatically added to this bar and remain hidden until you swipe up.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Swiping up on the bubble bar expands the most recent chat bubble. Other open conversations appear in a small pill next to the active one. Tapping the โ+โ button within this pill reveals recent and previously dismissed bubbles.
Each chat bubble features a title bar. Tapping it opens a menu with three options: โDonโt bubble conversation,โ โapp settings,โ and โdismiss bubble.โ
Although chat bubbles can no longer be repositioned freely on large screen devices, the new bubble bar is a significant improvement. By placing bubbles in the bottom-right corner instead of near the middle of the screen, it makes them much easier to reach on wider displays.
Weโve been tracking Googleโs progress on this feature for nearly two years and were wondering when it would go live. It has been essentially ready since early 2024so we donโt know why itโs taken so long to go live. While the bubble bar is currently limited to large screen devices running the July Android Canary release, weโve seen evidence that Google is working on bringing it to phones.