Introduction
Android 11 (2020) did something radical: it declared that messages from people are more important than notifications from apps. The “Conversations” section — a dedicated area at the top of the notification shade — prioritized messaging apps over everything else. Combined with Bubbles (floating chat heads), Android made communication the center of the experience.
The Conversations Section
The notification shade in Android 11 is divided into three sections:
- Conversations: Messages from people — SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger
- Alerting: Important non-message notifications — calendar, reminders, alarms
- Silent: Everything else — promotions, news, weather
Conversations appear at the top with larger contact avatars, dedicated action buttons (Reply, Mark as Read), and priority settings. They cannot be buried under app notifications.
Users can promote any notification to “Priority” or demote it to “Silent.” Apps that implement the Conversations API get additional features: Bubbles support, conversation-specific settings, and long-press shortcuts.
Bubbles
Bubbles are floating chat heads — circular contact icons that hover over any app. Tapping a bubble opens the conversation in a floating window. They’re based on Facebook Messenger’s chat heads, which Android users had been requesting for years.
Bubbles are opt-in per conversation. Developers must implement the Bubbles API, and users can enable or disable bubbles for each conversation independently.
Adoption has been mixed. Google Messages, Telegram, and Signal support Bubbles. WhatsApp took years to implement them. Many apps still don’t.
When they work, Bubbles are genuinely useful: texting while browsing, responding to messages during a video, maintaining multiple conversations without switching apps.
The Messaging Future
Conversations and Bubbles established that messaging is the smartphone’s primary use case. The notification system — designed in 2008 for app alerts — was rebuilt around human communication. It was a recognition that the most important thing your phone does is connect you to people.
References
- Android 11 Conversations documentation
- Bubbles API developer guide
- “People and Conversations” (Google I/O 2020)