An in-call floating bubble may be coming to Google's Phone app soon

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Most of today's smartphone users have been there at some point: you're in a call, but you have to check something on your phone, which means minimizing the in-call screen. And when you're done and want to get back to your call, you're forced to either manually open up the Phone app, or scroll through your notifications until you find the correct one.

This is all fine, really — the inconvenience caused by this problem can at worst be called 'minor,' but there is still an easier way. Just grab your nearest LG device and try it out for yourself: when you switch away from the Korean giant's home-grown Phone app, it collapses into a small, pill-shaped bubble similar to, say, Facebook Messenger's Chat Heads. But the good news is that this feature may not be limited to certain manufacturers for long, as Google seems to be testing its own take on the idea in its own Phone app.

This was uncovered by the folks at 9to5Google, who managed to track down and enable the feature on the latest public version of the app, which is currently available only on Google-branded smartphones — think Pixel, Nexus, and Android One. The bubble (which you can see in action in the video above) looks to be pretty useful, with options to end the call, mute your microphone, or turn on the loudspeaker.

Given this is Google we're talking about, there's a fair chance the feature might never make the final cut — but given the fact that it was found in a release version of the Phone app, as well as the upcoming release of both Android O and the Pixel 2 duo, we imagine this won't be the case. In fact, this could be one of the Pixel 2's exclusive launch features, just like the ones the original Pixel pair got last year — but we'll have to wait and see.

source: 9to5Google
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