One of the more notable features of Facebook Messenger on Android is Chat Heads, which gives you quick access to a conversation outside of the Facebook Messenger app. Now Google is testing a similar feature for its own messaging app.
It's been discovered that Google is working on a floating conversation bubbles feature for its Messages app. The folks at XDA-Developers enabled it inside the latest version of Messages, finding that when you get an incoming message, you'll see a photo of the contact, the Messages app icon, and a preview of the message over on the edge of the display. The preview will disappear after a few seconds and be replaced by a notification dot.
Tapping on the bubble will open up the chat in an overlay so that you can see the conversation and reply without having to actually go into the Messages app. When you're done chatting, you can tap and hold on the conversation bubble and drag it to the "X" that appears at the bottom of the screen.
There's also a setting within Google's Messages app to completely disable bubbles if you're not a fan of the feature.
Google hasn't officially announced this conversation bubbles feature for Messages, so it's unclear when it might officially launch to the public. This Chat Heads-style offering would make for a nice addition to Messages, though, because it would let you easily carry on your conversations without having to constantly jump back and forth between the Messages app and whatever other app you're using.