Google Starts Testing New Bubbles in Messages

Part of the initial feature set of Android 10, when Google first introduced it as Android Q earlier in the year, was a feature called Bubbles. Bubbles aren’t a new concept to Android, but would be a pretty big change to how notifications and messages work together on your phone going forward. Google decided that Bubbles were better off arriving in Android 11, so now we’re on the hunt for signs of that happening and one may have just popped up.

In the Google Messages app, XDA found a way to enable Bubbles on what appears to be a Pixel phone running Android 10. As you can see in the screenshots here, we do indeed have toggles for Bubbles that are specific to the Messages app as well as the pop-up windows we expect to be a part of the Bubbles experience.

For those new to Bubbles, think Facebook Chat Heads, where messages come in and pop-up as a little circle or “bubble” that floats around your screen, giving you access at all times. The bubble will show you who the message is from with a preview of the message, plus you can dismiss it at any time with a swipe to the bottom of the screen. With Bubbles, Google wants to allow all messaging apps to have access to that Chat Heads-like experience, though, so that you can manage many conversations from different apps.

We still don’t now exactly when Bubbles will show up, but we like seeing this in testing like this as signs of movement. It still could be until Android 11 and this is simply Google showing everyone how it’s done by including Bubbles in Messages, for all we know.

You still excited about Bubbles?

// XDA