Continuing the tradition, Google rolled out new pranks, tricks and crazy features on 1st April 2016 across its products. While it was easy to catch some of the hoaxes, some of them some of them were almost believable. In fact, one such Gmail prank made someone lose their job. Here is a complete list of all the April fools’ pranks in 2016.
- Making Teleportation Possible with Google Fiber
- Real Books by Google Play
- Search for Socks by Google Australia
- Self-Driving Bike by Google Netherlands
- The Groovy Google Maps
- A physical flick Bluetooth keyboard by Google Japan
- Mic Drop by Gmail
- Plastic Version of Google Cardboard
- Parachute Delivery by Google Express
- Snoopavision by YouTube
- The Chrome Chromebook
- Style Detection by Google Cloud
- Emoji in Smart reply by Inbox
- Search with Emoji by Google Photos
- Apps and Games in Space by Google Play and Android
- Real World Tabs by Google Tag Manager
- Gigantic Shrinking by Google X
1. Making Teleportation Possible with Google Fiber
Google Fiber is fast but not fast enough to telesport a 160-pound person at a distance of 60 miles in 1.2 seconds.
Our partners are using the quantum entanglement of the photons that move through our network to make teleportation happen, which is only possible on a pure fiber optic network. Clearly gigabit speeds are too slow. Even on a pure fiber network with gigaquad transfer rates, it would take weeks to transmit uncompressed physical data a few miles. We want these transfers to be complete in under 1.2 seconds.
says Google Fiber blog post.
2. Real Books by Google Play
Think about “one device, one book” that’s what the realBooks are. Google took an Android phone, stripped away all its apps, hardware and functionality until a bare screen was left – a perfect device to read books.
3. Searching Socks Made Easy by Google Australia
Google Australia brought Bluetooth enabled searchable socks to organize the world’s undergarments and make them universally findable.
“These new bluetooth-enabled socks are fitted with thin LTE beacons that wrap around the top of your lower calf, just like the coloured stripes you’d see on traditional socks. If you can’t find one sock, you can press the beacon on its pair and let the Google Search app on your phone pinpoint its whereabouts. The missing sock will then sing this song to help you find it.”
informs Google Australia blog post.
4. Self-Driving Bike by Google Netherlands
After self-driving cars, Google brings self-driving bikes considering convenience and environment to its users.
“Inspired by the self-driving car technology, we asked ourselves what if smarter bicycles in the Netherlands can make it easier and safer by applying the self-driving technology on a bike. We had all the cameras, software and batteries. The challenge was to make all this useful and workable in a smaller frame. At Google, we are very proud that we succeeded to develop this innovation from the Netherlands. “
says Google Netherlands blog post (translation).
5. The Groovy Google Maps
From the browser, you can see the StreetView has undergone 70s’ makeover with the purple suit pegmen.
For the Google Maps app, you can visit Funky town then the pegmen will show you some disco moves.
6. A Physical Flick Bluetooth Keyboard by Google Japan
Furikku, a physical keyboard that you can flick in any direction is the latest product from Google Japan to input Japanese directly in Android. And of course, the circuit board and firmware are open source.
“The device consists of a button that users can ‘push’ and also a sensor that detects ‘flick’ actions. There are 12 sensors and 8 complementary action buttons so a total of 20 sensors in the device. This device can be employed by users who are accustomed to typing letters on their smartphones, but not on their desktop keyboards”
informs Google Japan blog post (translation).
7. Mic Drop by
This new feature will let you have the last word on any email chain. Once you reply using “Send+Mic Drop” button, a minion gif will get inserted in your mail and you won’t see any responses after that (like reply and mute).
Everyone enjoyed this little prank until someone lost their job and Google had to turn it off saying, “caused more headaches than laughs”.
8. Plastic Version of Google Cardboard
A transparent Google Cardboard made from plastic that takes you beyond virtual reality in actual reality.
Google argues its better than Virtual Reality because
“Cardboard Plastic is the world’s first actual reality headset, complete with 4D integrated perspective, 360° spatially accurate sound, 20/20 resolution, and advanced haptics for realistic touch sensations. Expertly crafted from polymethyl methacrylate, Cardboard Plastic is lightweight, waterproof, and engineered to last a lifetime—no batteries, no wires. And unlike other VR headsets, it integrates seamlessly into your life—so you’ll never miss a thing. Unless you blink.”
9. Parachute Delivery by Google Express
A new delivery technology that complements drones – Parachutes.
10. Snoopavision by YouTube
The new way to watch videos on YouTube is with cutting-edge 360 degrees experience alongside Snoop Dog. YouTube calls it Snoopavision.
11. The Chrome Chromebook
All Chromebooks have Chrome browser, but how about Chrome as a separate device – The Chrome Chromebook.
“Enjoy tungsten space-grade chrome engineering with revolutionary new microchrome technology, so it’s light — in every sense of the word. The highly reflective chrome alloy case with two layers of automotive clear-coat creates infinite reflections, enveloping the Chrome Chromebook like a shimmering sheath. The platinum white backlit keyboard LED bounces light off a minimum of seven surfaces before striking the eye, and the included microfiber sleeve helps retain that just-unboxed glow.”
informs Chrome blog post.
12. Style Detection by Google Cloud
Know whether your style works or not with the help of deep learning, neural networks and Vision API available with Google Cloud platform.
“Style Detection aims to help people improve their style — and lives — by navigating the complex and fickle landscape of fashion. Does a brown belt go with black shoes? Pleats or no pleats? “To tuck or not to tuck?” is now no longer a question. With Style Detection, we’re able to mine our nearly bottomless combined data sets of selfies, fashion periodicals and the unstructured ramblings of design bloggers into a coherent and actionable tool for picking tomorrow’s trousers.”
13. Emoji in Smart reply by Inbox
Now the smart auto-suggestion in replies will also have emoji in Inbox for that extra sassiness.
“In our testing, we’ve also found that emoji do a better job of plumbing the emotional depths of one’s soul, so we’re optimistic that today’s update will encourage more open and honest email conversations.”
14. Search with Emoji by Google Photos
A new feature in Google Photos on April’s fool that’s actually required. You can now search images with emojis. Say you input a dog emoji and Google Photos will show you all the pics related to dogs.
15. Apps and Games in Space by Google Play and Android
Now developers can design, test and distribute their apps and games in space with new features in Google Play Developer Console and updated the material design guidelines for space.
16. Real World Tabs by Google Tag Manager
For the complex problem of tags in the real world, Google’s Tag team has introduced rules for the physical world and will be shipping 10,000 stickers to registered users.
17. Gigantic Shrinking by Google X
Another innovative idea from Google X – Shrink all the physical objects that will fix all the world’s problems.
“Imagine if we could compress data to the point that we could decrease compute times by 10X? Or if we could miniaturize physical objects, dramatically increasing global portability while reducing their carbon footprint? That’s what project compression is about and to tackle this mammoth challenge, we brought in some mammoth talent. ”
That’s all for this year. Subscribe us and never miss any Google update.