Activating and Using Chat Bubbles on Android 11

The stable version of Android 11 arrives just in time for Q3 2020. It comes with a bunch of fancy new features including increased touch sensitivity, native screen recording and speech bubbles. No, it’s not the Powerpuff Girl or the Dragonball Z monkey. It’s a feature that will make you as a user of the Android operating system even cooler.

Bubbles is a new API from Google that allows apps to minimize its instance in a bubble that floats above your phone’s user interface. Basically, it’s no different from the chat head icons provided by Facebook Messenger.

Normally, tap an app’s bubble to expand a command overlay that lets you instantly perform tasks like answering a message or answering a call. With the Bubbles API, you can comfortably engage in another freelance activity without having to worry about missing important calls or messages.

The Bubbles API is already available for Android 11 beta users. Truth be told, the feature is even available for Android 10, as it is first introduced in this version of Android OS. That said, Android 10 users may need to do workarounds from activating the Bubbles API is not that easy, and you can only use it as a developer. In other words, the API is pretty much useless if you plan to use it to help with your daily activities, like replying to a message.

Getting it to work on Android 11 for any messaging app, however, is pretty straightforward. Before that, however, you need to enable Developer Options.

First: activate the options for developers

Enabling Developer Options will give you access to a lot of cool stuff, for example, using USB debugging to unlock potential hidden features. In our particular case, activating the developer options gives you the possibility to use the Bubbles API.

If your device’s developer options are already enabled, you can skip this entire section. But, for a beginner you should:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to System -> select About phone -> under Software information; look for your phone’s build number.
3. The exact steps to access your device’s version number may vary from phone to phone.
4. Once you find the build number, tap it a few times until you see text saying “you are now a developer“reveal.
5. PIN code verification may be required.
6. Now go back to the main menu of the Settings app. Then find the newly added entry called Developer options.
7. Tap Developer Options, then turn on the switch. Thanks to this, you can now adjust your phone more freely.

The above steps are only necessary at the beginning. After enabling it for the first time, Developer options can be turned on and off directly from the Settings menu.

Apply the Bubbles API to your messaging apps

With developer options enabled, the option to apply balloons to any app also appears. Yes, in theory the Bubbles API should work for any third-party app as long as the app supports it, i.e. it doesn’t have to be ‘a messaging application.

To integrate Bubbles with the app of your choice, follow these steps.

1. Open the Settings app, then select Developer options.
2. Under Developer options, tap the Bubbles option, and then enable this setting.
   • If you can’t find the option, you can also access the search bar in the main menu of the Settings app to search for “bubbles”.

After activating Bubbles, you should receive a message from the messaging app of your choice. When a message notification appears, hold the notification, and then tap “Show as bubble”.

Potential messages received by the app will now be notified as balloons next time. The bubbles will still be there until you remove them or turn off the feature through notification settings.

If you don’t want to wait for a message from your friends to appear, you can immediately apply Bubbles by following these steps.

1. Return to the Settings app home screen. Move towards Apps and notifications -> press See all applications.
2. Under App Info, select the app where you want to apply the balloons.
3. Then press Bubbles and select All conversations can bubble.

That’s all! If all goes well, any future chat from that particular messaging app will appear as floating bubbles on your UI.

Use bubbles

The Bubbles API is confirmed to work with at least some of the most popular messaging apps including WhatsApp, Telegram, and Android Messages. The way the bubble feature is the same as the chat head found in Facebook Messenger.

You can drag the floating bubble so that it does not obstruct your vision. Tap the bubble to make it bigger and do your thing. If you want to remove the bubble, drag it to the bottom of the screen.

Still, since the Bubbles – along with Android 11 itself – is still in its beta phase, it does come with a few drawbacks. The most noticeable will appear if you have unread messages from several different apps. The balloon might show only one notification from one app, ignoring the others. If this happens, you may be missing an important message.

Well, things will surely improve as the official Android 11 release date approaches. More developers are encouraged by Google to take advantage of the new API so we most likely consider the bubble. as a standard across the board. .

Conclusion

The Bubbles API is another great addition to Android 11. If you’re already familiar with Cat Heads, you’d be pleasantly surprised once they’ve upgraded and released Android 11.

That said, some users have claimed that Bubbles’ functionality will only suffocate the phone’s already clogged interface. They prefer the screen to be clean of distractions. Do you like this new feature or do you prefer the basic notification bar instead?