Telegram added a whole bunch of new features earlier this week. Now, with the latest beta version (6.3) of the app, the company is testing chat bubbles for messages on Android. The feature currently 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 first long-press on the app version in 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 to enable “Bubbles” in your phone’s Developer Options.
XDA notes 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 of Android 11’s Chat bubbles.
