Telegram is Testing Chat Heads for Messages on Android
Jul. 31, 2020Telegramadded a whole bunch ofnew featuresearlier this week. Now, with the latest beta version (6.3) of the app, the company istesting chat bubbles for messages on Android. The featurecurrently exists in a hidden debug menu, which you can easily access to enable it.
Right now, chat bubble support on Telegram seems to be available only on Android 10+ devices. To enable it, you will have to firstlong-press on the app versionin Telegram’s Settings until you see the shrug (¯_(ツ)_/¯) emoji. Once you see it, long-press on the app version again until the debug menu appears.
In the debug menu, you will see a number of options. Tap on “Enable chat bubbles” option to get started with the feature. Also, it is worth noting that you will have toenable “Bubbles” in your phone’s Developer Options.
XDAnotes that the chat bubble crashes on a Pixel 4 and appears tiny on an Asus ROG Phone 3. It seems to work quite fine on an Oppo Find X2 Pro. Meanwhile, chat bubbles were not responding on Android 11 phones since it was not respecting the “Conversation” notification channel.
When I checked on my OnePlus 7T, the bubbles showed incoming notifications but I was not able to interact with it to send replies. If you get multiple notifications, the feature will show them as another bubble, just like Facebook Messenger’s chat heads.
Judging by the fact that Telegram is currently testing chat bubbles, we could expect the company to add it as a feature right in time for Android 11. Presumably, Telegram will be one of the early adopters ofAndroid 11’s Chat bubbles.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
