Google wants to make multitasking on Android tablets easier

Android phones and tablets already offer a great multitasking experience. And Google continues to refine it further by adding features such as a 90:10 split-screen mode, making it flexible and easier to run multiple apps simultaneously on small-screen devices. Still, multitasking on Android tablets is nowhere near as good as it should be. Thankfully, Google realizes this and could add the ability to bubble apps, easily letting you run and switch between multiple apps.

Reports of Google working on a “bubble anything” feature emerged in October 2024, with the feature hidden in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2. Back then, it felt like the company could make this feature official with Android 16, but that didn’t happen.

Now, Android Authority‘s Mishaal Rahman has found more references to this feature in the latest Android Canary 2510 release, albeit with some major tweaks. Instead of being able to bubble anything, code snippets indicate Google will allow you to bubble Android apps on tablets by dragging an app’s icon from one of the screen’s bottom corners.

The first time users perform the gesture, a tutorial will pop up explaining how the new bubble feature works. According to code strings, it will explain to users how an app can be dragged “to the bottom corners to make it float,” with an animation demonstrating how to create a bubble from the taskbar using a drag gesture.

The report claims that you might be able to launch any Android app in a floating bubble.

From bubbling conversations to apps

Right now, Android only allows you to bubble conversations. This enables you to move them around freely while using other apps and quickly access them without blocking what you’re doing. So, the ability to bubble apps on Android tablets seems like a natural extension of the feature.

Knowing Google, there’s always a chance the feature could be scrapped. But with a full tutorial complete with animations now in place, that seems unlikely.

Google may roll out the ability to bubble Android apps on tablets with Android 16’s first Quarterly Platform Release in 2026. If not, we might have to wait until Android 17 for the feature to go official.