It isn’t often that we see an interface addition so significant — so shape-shifting — that it has the potential to completely change the way you use your phone.
It may sound like hyperbole, but that very sort of enhancement is absolutely on its way into Android. After a comical amount of hemming, hawing, flippin’, and a-floppin’, Google is finally coming back around to its original Bubbles multitasking concept from seven years ago and working to fulfill the vision it teased us with in 2019 and then never fully delivered.
And now, the notion of having desktop-style floating-window apps on Android is officially on its way into the world — for realsies! — as a part of the not-far-in-the-future Android 17 update.
But you don’t have to wait for Android 17’s arrival to experience the splendor of Bubbles on your favorite Googley gadget. As is so often the case here in the land of Android, you can grant yourself a similar sort of superpower this second — if you know where to look.
Depending on your device and how ambitious you’re feeling, all it takes is either a pinch of digging and brain-training or, at worst, a teensy touch of creative tinkering.
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The Android Bubbles soap opera
We’ll get to the specific steps for bringing Bubbles-like multitasking onto any device in a second. First, let me back up a minute and properly set the stage for what this is even all about, for the non-mega-nerds among us…
Way back in 2019, y’see, Google gave us our first glimpse at an Android multitasking concept it called Bubbles — billed as “a new way for users to multitask and re-engage” with apps.
The idea was that with Bubbles, you could “carry an app’s functionality around” with you and keep things like notes, lists, and other pieces of pertinent info present on your screen and readily available for ongoing, on-demand access. It seemed like it could be a “mobile multitasking breakthrough,” as I opined at the time.
And then — well, Google…Googled. It got distracted by some shiny new thing, lost interest, and ultimately failed to fully flesh out the vision it had given us. Bubbles, the versatile on-demand multitasking revolution, turned into a limited, mostly annoying, and not at all on-demand option to have specific conversations in the Android Messages app always appear on your screen in a bubbled window form. And that’s it. Bah.
Fast-forward to last year, though, and the original Bubbles vision suddenly floated back to the surface as an under-development experiment. By the start of this year, it looked even more likely to make it into Android sometime soon.
Then, just a couple weeks ago, Google dropped its second Android 17 beta in our laps with the wild surprise that — yes, indeedly — Bubbles is back, baby, and soon to be available on demand with any app, anytime, as a piece of this year’s big new Android version.
The system doesn’t seem to be live and functional yet, even in that latest beta. But — allegedly! — the vision we were first promised nearly six years ago (!) is finally ready to become a reality as this latest Android update creeps closer to its final form.
Android Bubbles today: 3 crafty options
Now for the fun part: If you want to experience that Bubbles-like on-demand multitasking magic this minute, without waiting for Android 17 to be finished and rolled out to your device, you’ve got options.
For once, this is a scenario where Samsung’s heavy-handed modifications to the operating system are actually an advantage. But no matter what kind of Android device you’re holding or what specific sort of setup you prefer, there’s a path forward here for you.
On a recent Samsung Android device
First, provided you’re palming a reasonably recent Samsung Android gizmo, you’ve got the easiest approach of all — ’cause Samsung has already integrated a similar sort of setup directly into your device’s software. It just isn’t at all obvious or something most mere mortals are in any way aware of.
But it be there, all right — and once you know where to look, it couldn’t be much easier to tap into:
- First, make your way into the Samsung Android Overview area — either by tapping the three-vertical-line button on the bottom-left of your screen or by swiping up about an inch from the bottom of the screen and then stopping, if you’re using the current Android gesture system.
- Swipe left or right to move through your recently opened apps and find the one you want to open in a floating window.
- Press and hold your finger onto its preview, then let go on your home screen — and, poof: The app will be floating and ready to move around on your screen to any position you like, atop anything else you’re doing.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Now, there is no true “bubble” involved here — and you can’t minimize the app down to an icon and then keep it on standby, like what the full formal Android Bubbles system will allow. But it’s pretty darn close to the same practical effect, at least in concept, especially with how easy it is to bring an app back into that form via the Overview menu.
On any Android device — the easy (but more limited!) way
Next: No matter what Android device you’re using, you can enjoy a taste of the on-demand app bubbling action with a simple little app called Overlays.
Overlays is limited in that it works only with Android widgets — not the full underlying apps — but given how many worthwhile Android widgets are available and how much they let you accomplish (like being able to see and interact with your notes in Google Keep, see and interact with your emails in Gmail, or see and interact with your agenda in Google Calendar), that might be all you actually need.
And it’s a heck of a lot simpler to set up than our final, more fully featured option, which we’ll get into next.
By default, Overlays gives you a bunch of its own little widgets to choose from, but the real power comes from adding in widgets from the Android apps you already use and rely on. To do that, tap the “Triggers” tab at the bottom of the Overlays configuration area, then tap the red plus button in the lower-right corner of the screen. Select “Manual,” then type in whatever name you want for your widget and tap the icon to pick any icon you like.
Tap “Save,” then select “Widget” and find the widget you want from the list. At that point, you’ll see a preview of the widget. Move or resize it if you like, to control exactly how and where it’ll appear on your screen whenever you summon it, then hit the arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen to exit out of that interface. Last but not least, tap the name of your newly made widget on the screen that comes up next to change its status to “Always on.”
And that’s it: As soon as you head out of the app and back to your home screen, your fancy new widget should pop right up. All you’ve gotta do is tap the little downward-facing arrow in its corner to minimize it down to a bubble, which you can then press and hold to move anywhere your bubble-lovin’ brain desires.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Overlays can also create bubble-based widgets that automatically appear based on context — so you could have something show up every time you connect to a certain Bluetooth device or Wi-Fi network, for instance. To explore those options, just follow the same steps from above but pick “Event” instead of “Manual” when you reach the “Triggers” tab configuration.
Overlays is free, for these purposes, with an optional $4 in-app upgrade that removes some ads from the configuration interface and unlocks a handful of advanced extra features (none of which are required for what we just went over).
On any Android device — the ambitious (but most fully featured) approach
Last but not least is a brilliant way to enjoy full Bubbles-like floating windows for any app on any device, in a way that’s especially easy to access but that requires a bit of a complex initial setup.
It revolves around a fantastic Android power-user app called Panels, which is one of my all-time favorite productivity enhancers. It works amazingly well, once you’ve got it up and running. But its setup process isn’t exactly intuitive, and it takes some time and patience to get through when you’re first getting going.
Once you have it up and running, though, you’ll be able to access all of your apps with a single swipe along the side of your screen — like so:
JR Raphael, Foundry
And, with a couple more quick taps from there, you can open any of those apps into a floating, resizable window that you can then position anywhere you like on your screen and use atop or alongside anything else you’ve got open.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Not bad, right? It’s basically a more flexible, versatile, and powerful version of Android’s standard split-screen mode — a desktop-caliber way to multitask and interact with two (or more!) apps without having to stick to the at-times awkward and limiting side-by-side, full-screen-style grid. And once you get it set up, it’s delightfully simple to use.
I’ve got step-by-step instructions for setting up Panels properly right here. You’ll need roughly five minutes to get through it, once, and then your device will be ready to roll with easy on-demand freeform window multitasking from that moment forward.
Pick whichever of these paths makes the most sense for you, and you’ll be enjoying the freedom and advanced efficiency that comes from having your apps on demand as floating, moveable windows — well before Google officially opens up the Bubbles door for you.
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