- Google has been working on a revamped chat bubble experience for large-screen devices since early last year, but the feature has only now started to work.
- Android has had native support for Messenger-like chat bubbles since Android 11, but the feature currently doesn’t scale well on large-screen devices like tablets.
- Although the new chat bubble experience isn’t available yet, I managed to activate it a bit early to show off what it’ll be like.
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram are some of the most popular apps on Android, so it’s no surprise that the OS has features designed specifically to improve the messaging experience. One of those features is actually a copy of something Meta’s Messenger app pioneered years ago: chat bubbles. Android added a chat bubbles API over three years ago in Android 11, but the feature has pretty much stayed the same since its initial release. That’s set to change in the near future, as Google is finally preparing to update the chat bubble experience on large-screen devices like tablets.
If you open a conversation in a chat bubble right now on an Android tablet, it’ll look and function exactly the same as on an Android phone. That means the chat bubble will be anchored to the left or right side of the screen, which makes it hard to reach on wider tablets. Google’s solution to this problem is to add a “bubble bar” — a small bar that’s anchored to the bottom right corner of the screen. Chat bubbles are pinned to the bubble bar when created, and by default, aren’t shown on the screen until you swipe up on the bar.