Bubbl
Bubbl is a menu bar app for anyone who keeps missing Teams messages. It watches the Microsoft Teams app on your Mac and, for every chat with unread messages, floats a small pill with the person's initials and name in the top-right corner of the screen, above all your windows. Once you read the chat, its bubble goes away.
It began as a plan for an app called Halo that would sign in to Microsoft's servers and show profile photos. What got built is simpler: Bubbl reads the chat list straight from the Teams window, using the Mac's Accessibility permission, so there is no sign-in and nothing is sent anywhere.
- Menu bar app
- Microsoft Teams
- No sign-in
Personal project, early prototype. Not on the App Store.
macOS 26.4 or later · version 1.0
Inside Bubbl
A bubble for each unread chat
Each unread conversation gets its own bubble with initials and a name, stacked down the right side of the screen and floating above every window.
Click to jump to the chat
Clicking a bubble brings Teams to the front and selects that conversation in its chat list.
Shows how long it has waited
Chats that turn unread while Bubbl is running get a small time badge, like now, 5m or 2h.
You choose what to watch
Check Teams every 15, 30 or 60 seconds, and turn bubbles for group chats on or off.
No sign-in needed
A setup window explains the Accessibility permission, opens the right page of System Settings and starts watching as soon as permission is given. The menu shows whether Teams is running, and a test bubble shows what one looks like.
Good to know
- Needs the Microsoft Teams app for Mac, running, and the macOS Accessibility permission.
- It only knows what the Teams chat list shows: there are no profile photos and no message counts, and it does not read message text.
- A few settings, like bubble size and launch at login, are placeholders for now.