Kyle Kucharski

I have certain contacts whose messages I need to ensure I never miss. There are many ways of doing this, but my go-to is to use Android's text "bubble" feature, which creates a small, movable bubble for the conversation on my phone's home screen. By doing this, I always know when an important contact has sent me a message and I can simply tap the bubble to open the conversation (without having to first open Google Messages). 

I only do this for very important contacts; otherwise, my display would be awash with bubbles. That's not very efficient.

Also: The best Android phones right now: Tested and reviewed

The bubbles feature has been around for some time, so your Android device should have it included with the Google Messages app. One thing to keep in mind is that bubbles is separate from Rich Communication Services (RCS), so just because you've enabled that feature doesn't automatically add bubbling for conversations.

With that said, let's bubble.

How to bubble a Google Messages conversation

What you'll need:The only things you'll need are an Android device and a Messages conversation to bubble. That's it. Let's make it happen.

1. Open Messages

The first thing to do is open Messages on your Android device. 

2. Open Settings

Tap your profile photo in the upper right corner and, from the resulting popup, tap "Messages settings."

The "Messages settings" entry is near the bottom of the drop-down.

Jack Wallen\

3. Enable Bubbles

In the Settings page, tap Bubbles. In the resulting window, tap "Selected conversations can bubble" (or "Selected only," if you're on a Samsung device). Once you've done that, back out of Settings.

By default, Messages is set such that nothing can bubble.

Jack Wallen

4. Bubble a conversation

Here's the trick. You have to wait until a message hits your device before you can bubble the conversation. When a message does arrive (for a conversation you want to bubble), pull down the Notification Shade and tap History. Locate and long-press the message in question. On the resulting page, tap the On/Off slider for "Bubble this conversation." If you're on a Samsung device, see below for further instructions.

You must enable Bubbles for each conversation you want.

Jack Wallen

If you're using a Samsung Galaxy phone, you won't find easy access to your notification history. Fortunately, Samsung has made it easy to bubble a conversation directly from the Notification itself. So, when you see a notification for a Messages conversation, expand it, and then tap the small square with the arrow pointing to the bottom right corner. The conversation should be added as a bubble to your home screen.

The bubble icon is directly to the left of the bell icon.

Jack Wallen

Tap the bubble to view the conversation and respond. Once you're done, you can drag the bubble to the bottom of the display to dismiss it, or you can leave it there for easy access. Personally, once I've responded, I drag the bubble off the screen so that, when it reappears, I know there's a message I need to respond to.

A conversation bubble can be moved to any place at the edge of your display.

Jack Wallen

Bubbles are a great way to ensure you never miss an important conversation on Android. I highly recommend using this feature to stay up to date with certain contacts.

Also: How to enable read receipts for texts on Android

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that once you bubble a conversation, it will always appear as a bubble. The only way to stop that behavior is to go into your settings again and disable the conversation from bubbling.

See also

How to turn on Private DNS Mode on Android (and why you should)How to schedule a text on Android - quickly and easilyHow to create Android Routines (and a few of my favorites to get you started)How to screen calls on your Android phone and stop the spam delugeHow to mirror your Android phone to a TV -- 3 easy waysAndroid's eSIM transfer comes to more smartphones. Here's how it works

• How to turn on Private DNS Mode on Android (and why you should)
• How to schedule a text on Android - quickly and easily
• How to create Android Routines (and a few of my favorites to get you started)
• How to screen calls on your Android phone and stop the spam deluge
• How to mirror your Android phone to a TV -- 3 easy ways
• Android's eSIM transfer comes to more smartphones. Here's how it works