Android 12 Beta 2 landed yesterday, and it brought quite a few changes. One of those changes has to do with the ‘Conversation Widget’ feature, as it’s available on some devices with Android 12 Beta 2 build.
This feature has been mentioned a lot of times thus far, and XDA Developers even managed to get it running on an earlier build (Android 12 Developer Preview 3). It wasn’t fully functional back then, though.
‘Conversation Widget’ is appearing for some Pixel users on Android 12 Beta 2
Android Police reports that the feature is now enabled on the Pixel 4 XL, at least for them. It is enabled on both Pixel 4 XL units that Android 12 Beta 2 is installed on, which could indicate that other Pixels also have access to it.
You can add it the old-fashioned way. Open your widget picker, find the widget, and add it to the home screen. You’ll be taken to the setup page, where you’ll need to choose a conversation you’d like to add.
Once you choose a conversation, it will be added to your home screen. You’ll be able to tap the widget in order to open the conversation in its dedicated app. The widget will show you the number of waiting notifications beneath your avatar.
You can get message previews as well
Do note that you can get message previews as well, but you’ll need to go into the settings, and enable some permissions manually, as the widget doesn’t prompt you to do so. At the moment, it works with Slack and Google Messages, plus some other apps, possibly.
Chances are that the widget will get its full functionality in the Android 12 stable build. It will likely prompt you to enable permissions, as it doesn’t do that at the moment.
Still, it’s at least functional now, and there’s a chance you can use it if you installed Android 12 Beta 2 on your Pixel device, at least some of you.