Google introduced “bubbles” as a means of keeping messaging apps easily accessible by letting them float on top of other apps. In future versions of Android, it sounds like Google may make these a lot more useful by letting you run any app in a “bubble.”
As it stands today, “bubbles” in Android are connected to notifications, designed to allow messaging apps to run in a floating window so that you can keep that message available no matter what you’re doing. It can be a handy feature, but it’s one that’s easily forgotten.
Google may be taking the underlying functionality and giving it a huge upgrade, though.
The folks over at Android Authority have managed to uncover a new feature Google is working on, probably for Android 16, where any app can run in a bubble. This new option would allow users to manually place any app within a bubble and have the app just a tap away, effectively introducing a new form of multitasking. Work on the feature was spotted in Android 15 QPR1 and seems to be fully functional, implying that it might end up releasing well before Android 16.
The new option works by adding a bubble button to the app’s homescreen icon, at least on Pixel.
Google is also working on a new “bubble bar” for Android tablets which would better organize the floating windows, and potentially make this new ability even more useful.
Again, it’s unclear when this feature might go live, but the fact that it is fully functional behind the scenes already heavily implies it could arrive prior to the launch of Android 16, perhaps in a coming QPR release on top of Android 15.
More on Android:
- These Android phones have Google’s Circle to Search feature
- RCS messaging from Android to iPhone: Everything you can currently do [Video]
- What’s new in the October 2024 Google System Updates
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