So, I was on the Internet the other day (imagine that!) and I was chatting with my friend on Google Hangouts. I don’t recall exactly what it is that I said, but it must have been funny, because he replied with a hearty “hahahaha.” Suddenly, a yellow figure emerged from the bottom of the chat window and it proceeded to laugh at us. We soon discovered there was much more to Google Hangouts than the emoticons that Google provides.
Apparently, these tricks have been around for over a year already, but this was my first encounter.
Google is no stranger to little Easter eggs. For example, if you type “Do a barrel roll” into the Google search bar, the entire screen will spin around in a Star Fox-inspired barrel roll. And when Google Reader was still around, you could enter the Konami code to change all your unread counts to 30 and get a ninja background. And this applies to Google Hangouts too.
A fair warning: These little Google Hangouts secret actions could obliterate your productivity more than taking care of a newborn… at least for a few minutes of giggles overloaded with cuteness. And they’re all animated to boot.
- hahahaha – The yellow smiley figure will appear to laugh at you. This also works with rofl, but not lol.
- woohoo – The same yellow figure pops out with arms raised, exclaiming “Woohoo!” This also works with woot and yay!!
- happy birthday – A birthday cake or a wrapped present appear.
- /shydino – A green dinosaur walks across the bottom with a yellow shell. This also works with /shydinosaur.
- /bikeshed – The background color of the chat window changes. I don’t think you can choose the color.
- /pitchforks – An angry mob runs across the bottom of the chat window.
- /ponies – A single pony, in the style of My Little Pony, gallops across the window.
- /ponystream – A never-ending group of ponies trot across the chat window.
- Konami code – Enter the Konami code with your arrow keys (up up down down left right left right B A Enter) and the background of the chat window will change to an image of a mountainous countryside.
From what I can gather, these Easter Eggs only apply to the desktop browser-based version of Google Hangouts or via the newest version of the Android app, but not on other platforms. For some of these, the animations are always the same (like /shydino), while others go through several different animations (like happy birthday).
Are there any more that I’m missing?
Note that with the Konami code, only lowercase letters work. Don’t hit shift!!
I know
You can also do /8ball, /roll and /corgis.