Talk Balloons
by CerbonXD
Talk Balloons shows a bubble above a player's head each time that player sends a message in the chat.
What it does
Chat messages appear as speech bubbles floating over the sender's head, so nearby players can see who is talking without reading the chat log. Each bubble resizes to fit the length of the message, and longer messages are supported. The client renders the bubbles, and the config file controls the minimum and maximum bubble width, the text color and how many bubbles are drawn at once.
The mod is maintained by BluSpring. An addon for it, found under UnityTranslate, adds a live translation system modeled on the QSMP server, which turns speech into text and makes it translatable into other languages. Talk Balloons requires Fabric API on Fabric, Fabric Language Kotlin on Fabric, KotlinLangForge on Forge, and Modern Networking on Forge and NeoForge. Mod Menu is optional, and YetAnotherConfigLib (YACL) is bundled inside the mod. It is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only, and the source code is open source.
Key features
Chat bubbles
Messages from players appear as bubbles floating above the sender's head in the game world.
Adaptive bubble size
Each bubble grows or shrinks to fit the message, and longer messages still display in full.
Configurable appearance
The config file sets the minimum and maximum bubble width, the text color and the number of bubbles rendered.
Translation addon
An addon from BluSpring converts speech into text and supports translation into other languages.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
26.x5 of 5 versions with builds
1.21.x12 of 12 versions with builds
1.20.x6 of 6 versions with builds
1.19.x3 of 3 versions with builds
1.18.x3 of 3 versions with builds
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Requirements
Dependencies declared by the latest file for each loader.
Required 3
Optional 1
Embedded 1
Use cases
Role play servers
Bubbles show who said what in nearby conversation, which suits role play and roleplay communities on busy servers.
Live translation events
The UnityTranslate addon lets speech appear in other languages for players who do not share a language.
Who it’s for: Players who want to read nearby conversation directly above the speaker, and server communities that run role play or live translated events.
How it compares
Speech Heads is a Fabric mod for 1.21.1 with the client and server environment, released under All rights reserved and not open source. Simple Chat Bubbles is a Fabric client-side only mod for 1.21 – 26.2, also All rights reserved and not open source, so servers can run without it. chat-bubbles-forge is a Forge mod for 1.20.1 – 1.20.6 with the client and server environment under the MIT License, and it is open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talk Balloons | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.18 – 26.3 | Client or server, optional | 2026-10-12 |
| Speech Heads | Fabric | 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-07-11 |
| Simple Chat Bubbles | Fabric | 1.21 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-07-02 |
| chat-bubbles-forge | Forge | 1.20.1 – 1.20.6 | Client and server | 2026-08-31 |
Questions
Which loader files exist for Talk Balloons?
Do servers need Talk Balloons installed?
Which dependencies must be installed with Talk Balloons?
Can the bubble settings be changed?
In the catalog
Talk Balloons is one of 5,392 Social mods on ModsFinder, and one of 4,084 Social mods for Fabric. 8,071 mods support Minecraft 26.3.
More from CerbonXD
Similar mods
What the author says
Talk Balloons is a client side mod that allows you to see bubbles above the players heads when they send messages to the chat. The bubbles adjust to the size of the message, with larger messages being supported too.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/talk-balloons
- Owner
- CerbonXD
- Published
- 2024-03-26
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-10-12
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15