Joe Maring / Android Authority

Google officially rolled out stable Android 17 last week for supported Pixel devices, dating all the way back to the Pixel 6. Prior to the release, the update had been in beta for several months, during which we tested many of the new features that Android 17 brings. But the update rolling out in stable not only finalizes the features but also makes them available to people who wouldn’t want to sacrifice device stability just to test new features, which, to me, is a fair ask.

We recently asked our readers about their favorite Android features, and one emerged as the absolute favorite. It’s also one of the features my colleagues use most among Android 17’s offerings.

In a recent survey we put out for Android Authority readers, the new multitasking Bubbles in Android 17 were a big hit. The feature is designed to let you open up to five different apps side by side in sort of chat bubbles, and it got a little over 30% of the votes in our survey.

You might remember that Facebook Messenger introduced chat bubbles for active chats, and Google adopted them around Android 11 for chat apps. With Android 17, however, it’s taking a major leap and now lets you open just any app in a collapsible bubble. With this, you can easily switch between apps without dedicating dedicated space to each or minimizing them, and we have a dedicated guide on Bubbles in Android 17 to help you use them effortlessly on your Pixel.

In addition to Bubbles, the other features that get the most votes are improved dark theme controls, which bring a dark mode to apps that don’t natively support it. That’s something night owls will especially appreciate. The feature that gets the third-highest number of votes is the option to hide app names to give the home screen a cleaner look.

Among other features, our readers appreciated the split toggles for Wi-Fi and data, which were long overdue, as most Android skins already offer them. Other features, such as a dedicated quick settings tile for satellite connectivity, a new screen recording feature with reactions, separate volume controls for Google Assistant, and limited location sharing with the app by switching to a precise location temporarily, received some love from readers, but none as much as Bubbles.