Fix: Android 12 Chat Bubbles not working (2023)

Android 12 brought a lot of aesthetic changes and enhanced privacy options among other things. But, feature-wise, it’s not all that different than what we already got on Android 11. One feature that many users disregarded while many embraced it is Chat Bubbles. For some users on Android 12, Chat Bubbles are not working for a selected few apps that support this feature.

If you are among them, make sure to check for possible solutions below. We hope the steps we listed for you will help you address this problem in no time.

Table of contents:

1. Make sure that the Bubbles are enabled
2. Enable Chat Bubbles for a particular app
3. Clear the app’s cache and data
4. Update the app

How to use Chat Bubbles on Android 12?

Since Android 11, Android users can use Facebook Messenger-like Chat Bubbles with a few messaging apps. If you want to make Chat Bubbles work on your Android, make sure to:

• Enable this feature in Settings > Notifications.
• Ensure that the supported app in use has floating chat bubbles enabled, too.
• Reset the app or reinstall it and give it another try.

1. Make sure that the Bubbles are enabled

First of all, not all messaging apps support chat bubbles at this time. At the moment, besides Facebook Messenger and Google (Samsung) Messages, only Telegram functionally supports Chat Bubbles. WhatsApp should support them as well, however, it doesn’t work yet for some reason.

Also, as our reader Kumar noticed, Chat Bubbles won’t work if the app is locked and needs to be unlocked to access it, like with App Lock or Secure Folder. Make sure to disable these or exclude apps that use Chat Bubbles.

The next thing you should do is ensure that Bubbles are enabled in System Settings. Here’s how to enable Bubbles:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Apps & notifications.
3. Select Notifications.
4. Choose Bubbles.
5. Toggle On the Allow apps to show bubbles option.

2. Enable Chat Bubbles for a particular app

The next thing to do is to ensure that the Chat Bubbles feature is enabled for the particular app that supports the feature. Supported apps probably won’t have it enabled by default, so it’s worth checking out Settings.

Follow these steps to enable Chat Bubbles by apps:

1. Open Settings > Apps & notifications.
2. Tap All apps.
3. Look for the app that won’t work with Bubbles.
4. Open the app from the list and select Notifications.
5. Tap Bubbles.
6. Choose All conversations can bubble.

3. Clear the app’s cache and data

If Chat Bubbles are still not working for you, despite you went through the first two steps, we encourage you to clear the app’s cache and data. We suspect local data corruption after the upgrade to Android 12. By clearing local data, you should address the problem.

Follow these instructions to clear the cache and data from the affected app:

1. Navigate to Settings > Apps & notifications > All apps.
2. Locate the app that keeps giving you problems with Chat Bubbles.
3. Open Storage.
4. Clear cache and data and log in again into the app if necessary.

4. Update the app

Finally, if none of the previous steps proved to work for you, make sure to update the app. Alternatively, you can enroll in the Beta program to get the feature working as soon as possible (e.g. WhatsApp) or get the latest APK of a Beta version from the APKMirror.

Just navigate to Play Store and, from there, look for the app that won’t work with Chat Bubbles on Android 12. Make sure that it’s up to date and scroll down to enroll in the Beta program. Once fully updated, test it out to see whether Chat Bubbles work or not.

And, on that note, we can call it a wrap. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or reach us on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in October 2020. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.