Our top software Easter eggs
Easter eggs aren’t chocolate in tech terms, instead, it’s the name given to undocumented, unexpected features in software. They are commonly a joke, message or fun feature hidden in software by an engineer or developer for users to find.
New software Easter eggs don’t come around all too often, so we thought we’d compile a list of some of our favourites!
1 – Chrome’s dinosaur game
For almost 8 years now, Chrome’s dinosaur game has provided a fun activity to pass time while there’s no internet connection. Once the dinosaur pops up on the screen, all users have to do is press the space bar and the game begins to avoid cacti and vultures as the dinosaur runs along the desert.
2 – Android’s eggs
Android have been sure to have some fun while developing, ensuring to put an Easter egg in every version since 2.3. All you have to do is:
- Go to Settings
- About Phone
- Tap the version number several times
- Keep tapping when the log appears
- Enjoy the Easter egg!
3 – Outlook 2010 – is that Bill Gates?
When Outlook 2010 was released, users were introduced to their ‘picture pane’ which meant that other users could now see a small image of their contacts. However, not everyone had their photo attached to their profile, and so Outlook had a fallback photo for this which was a silhouette. Users started to notice that the silhouette showed a striking resemblance to someone – it appeared the Outlook engineer had taken inspiration from Bill Gates’ mug shot!
4 – Spotify’s lightsabre
On Windows or MacOS systems, simply play the soundtrack to any Star Wars films and see how the progress bar becomes a lightsaber!
5 – Google’s many, many Easter eggs
Google is full of Easter eggs, from the classic ‘do a barrel roll’ which will make the page do a 360 spin, to ‘askew’ which will cause the page tilt slightly and ‘anagram’ which will see the results page suggest ‘nag a ram’. There are many, many Easter eggs to find from Google developers.
6 – Wikipedia’s Easter egg hedgehog
Wikipedia’s page on Easter eggs actually includes an Easter egg! Just go to the page and click on the hedgehog in the main image…
This list only scratches the surface of software Easter eggs, they are hidden all over, have fun searching!
