April Fools’ Day is that one day in the year where pranking and fooling anyone and everyone is pretty much fair game. It’s a day where most people choose not to trust anything; after all, most things said and done on the date itself are nothing but fabrications. Commercial brands joining in the fun are nothing new, rather, they’ve been stepping up their April Fools’ jokes year after year. With so many brands doing exactly just that, we’re sure you missed a number of them, and so, we collected a couple of those April Fools’ jokes done by tech-related brands this 2019. Read on!
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Google went all-out this year with many April Fools’ gag announcements. First up is the “Screen Cleaner” feature in the Files app. In the video, Google shows how the “Screen Cleaner” cleans not only the inside but also the outside of your smartphones.
Next up is Google Tulip, a new service that allows Google Home to communicate with, you guessed it, tulips. Shown in the video, Google showed humans and tulips conversing with each other through the Google Home app. What did the tulips want? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.
Heading over to Google Japan, the Japanese team continued with their tradition of involving the Gboard in its gag. This year, they featured the Gboard Spoon Bending Version. As demonstrated in the video, individuals are shown to input characters based on the way they bend the spoons. Each character has a corresponding angle to it. Interestingly, if you use your mind to bend the spoon, you’ll be able to input more characters.
Of course, there’s also the usual playable games jokes in Google’s services. This year, Google Maps allowed its users to play the mobile phone classic game Snake. The good news is that this playable Snake on Maps will be up for a week, and Google has also built a dedicated site for people to play even after April Fools’ is long over. Google Calendar also had a hidden Space Invaders-style game in it with users blasting away meetings and schedules to score.
Xiaomi
For April Fools’, smartphone brand Xiaomi unveiled their latest device, the Xiaomi Invisible, with the hashtag #NowYouSeeMi. Xiaomi claimed that it has a 100-year battery life, 100% screen-to-body ratio, a completely see-through design, and an AI system that can read that user’s mind. Impressive, right?
Vivo
Not one to be outdone, Vivo also joined in the April Fools’ fun. Patterned after their recently released Vivo V15 Pro, they launched the extremely limited Vivo V15 Mega. According to Vivo, the V15 Mega has 14 rear cameras, all for your endless photographic use! The design’s a little trippy but hey, that’s what you get for wanting a ton of lenses on your phone.
Nvidia
Tech company Nvidia launched R.O.N., a smart assistant. It supports multiple languages, teaching you how to say “I am a chicken dinner” in the language of your choice, help you win arguments on the internet by leaving lengthy replies on Reddit or Twitch in your place. R.O.N. can also give you tips while playing games, translate your anger during gaming, and distract your family so that you can play longer.
Duolingo
Language-learning app Duolingo released the Duolingo Push as its April Fools’ joke. Taking their push notifications on an entirely different level, Duolingo’s green owl Duo, will now show up whenever, wherever you are to remind you of your lessons. This gag most likely came to life after the numerous Duolingo memes on Twitter.
Spotify
Spotify users have found that their Discover Weekly playlist has turned into a Discocover Weekly playlist. That’s right; for April Fools’, the music streaming app made a playlist of Disco covers of songs for its users. Some of the songs included in the playlist are a Star Trek theme song disco cover, a disco version of Princess Leia’s theme from Star Wars, and so much more.
Nokia
Posted by Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer of HMD Global, Nokia’s April Fools’ gag involves its latest device, the Nokia 9 PureView. This edition of PureView, however, has an x-ray sensor in the smartphone. Sarvikas also posted a screenshot of the Nokia X-Ray app needed to run the sensor. Pretty neat, huh?
OnePlus
Moving on from manufacturing smartphones, tech company OnePlus decided to take a shot at Tesla by announcing their latest product, the OnePlus Warp Car. The Warp Car is said to seamlessly integrate with OnePlus smartphones. The smartphone can be used to control the car as a steering wheel or by using swipe gestures. One drawback though is that the Warp Car requires its drivers to have a minimum height of 5ft. 6in. otherwise, those shorter or taller than that won’t be able to fit or reach the pedals. Oops.
Have a favorite April Fools’ Day jokes among the list? (If you’ll ask me, mine is definitely the Duolingo one because I relate to it on a spiritual level). Let us know in the comments!
Realme had one too.