Google just released the first Android 11 beta, and perhaps the most notable user-facing new feature is the overhauled notification system. The old one was getting a bit long in the tooth, and Google now chose a new approach where messaging or chat apps are just a part of a larger “conversations bucket” in the notification shade.
The “bucket” idea stems from the fact that Android focus groups showed its users want a dedicated space within the UI that is set apart for individual tasks that they know is there for that particular purpose. While every developer can push notifications from their app, Google prioritizes the Conversations ones with a new section header in the shade.
Perhaps the most immediately visible Android 11 notifications system feature will be chat bubbles, Facebook Messenger style. The idea is not to overlay the content of whatever it is that you are doing on the screen with a drop-down notification, but for a bubble to pop up, allowing you to easily switch between conversations instead of going places to pick and choose.
The Bubbles concept used to be a developer preview feature but is not graduating into the beta so it will definitely make it into the final Android 11 release later down the road. If developers chose to use the BubbleMetadata API, as explained by Google in the video above, Android users can snatch any talk they are participants in when it pops up, and take it to the screen via the respective chat bubble that will show.
Bubbles essentially removes the middle man, and you can open a chat or messaging app window immediately after you get a humble balloon alert, do the answering song and dance, and get on your Asphalt 9 merry way. Less annoying than reading and having a huge notification slide down, then having to go to the shade or the app, open and wait for the whole thing to load again, losing precious time and taps in the process.
Android 11 Bubbles notification system
The whole Bubbles idea jibes with Google’s new Android 11 concept for “persistent space” that will be solely dedicated for certain tasks. Google has listened to the user feedback, and concluded that conversations with people are often way more important than whatever else you may be doing on your phone at the moment.
Thus, when a chat “bubble” appears, you can immediately drag it into view as a card that is essentially a mini app which will overlay anything you have underneath so that you can participate. The floating bubbles can use adaptive icon properties to resize, but we will see how all that pop-up clutter will behave in practice when developers start using them en masse.
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