If you have an updated version of Facebook Messenger installed on your Android device then you would have seen the cool new chat heads feature that pops up whenever you receive a new message from your Facebook friends. However, those notifications are restricted to the Facebook app. Now, if want a similar functionality for all your installed apps then let me introduce you to a new app called Floating Notifications.
Floating Notifications is a small standalone Android application that takes the Facebook Chat Heads feature and expands it to a broad variety of apps. With it, you can see quick notifications for text messages, emails, social network updates, and a lot more.
How to set up Floating Notifications
Download Floating Notifications apk file from the XDA Developers thread and install it.
Floating Notifications has not been updated since some time. You can use DirectChat as an alternate to get the same functionality for all apps.
Once installed, enable the app as an Accessibility Service. This can be done by navigating to the accessibility menu in the Android settings and enabling the Floating Notifications option. On enabling, you should see a test notification appear on the screen. Double-tap on the icon to dismiss it.
The app is fully customizable; by going through its settings, you can adjust a number of settings like the size and transparency of the floating icon, how multiple notifications are shown, how much info accompany them, and even if you’d like your phone to wake on receipt of a notification. Moreover, you can apply different settings for individual apps.
Interactions between notifications vary depending on how many times you tap them:
- Single tapping expands the icon stack or displays the related content
- Double tapping closes one or all of your notifications
- Tapping in the content opens the related application
The app is currently in alpha stage, so understandably there are some quirks and bugs, but they are minor and hopefully they will be ironed out over time.
We will update this post once the app gets an official Play Store link.