C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
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- Android improves the Chat Bubble Function on Large Screens, and attached calls to a new, more accessible “bubble bar” in the lower corner.
- This new bubble bar remains discreetly hidden until you swipe it up, which then expands the last chat bubble for you to see.
- While the feature is currently live for tablets and folding in the latest Android Canary building, evidence suggests that phones can eventually come.
When in a busy group chat, you can constantly change apps to see the latest messages being painful. Androids Chat Bubble Function helps you to follow calls in a floating window without leaving your current app. Unlike notifications that only show the latest message or two, chat bubbles contain the entire call -user interface. Although this feature is useful, it has become poorly optimized for devices with large screen-in the smallest to the first Android Canary release.
In the current stable release of Android 16Chat bubbles appear near the center of the left or right side of the screen. This works well on narrow smartphones, but it is difficult on wider tablets. While users could move the bubbles to a more convenient place, the latest Android Canary building introduces a more elegant solution for tablets And book style folding.
On large screen units, chat bubbles are now attached to a “bubble bar”, a small, discreet post anchored in the bottom right of the screen. New bubbles are automatically added to this line and remain hidden until you swipe up.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Swipe up on the bubble bar expands the latest chat bubble. Other open calls appear in a small pill next to the active. Tapping the “+” button in this pill reveals recent and earlier dismissive bubbles.
Each chat bubble has a title line. To tap it opens a menu with three options: “Don’t bubble call”, “app settings” and “Farewell bubble.”
Although chat bubbles can no longer be relocated freely on large screen units, the new bubble bar is a significant improvement. By placing bubbles in the bottom right corner instead of near the center of the screen, it makes them much easier to reach on wider screens.
We have tracked Google’s progress with this feature for almost two years and wondered when it was going live. It has been essentially Ready since the beginning of 2024So we don’t know why it has taken so long to go live. While the bubble bar is currently limited to large screen units running the July Android Canary release, we have seen evidence that Google is working on To bring it to phones.