With the launch of Android 15 Beta 4 we have confirmation of the upcoming secret in the next stable release. As you probably do, we love the little sneaky Easter eggs in Android, but what is the best?
Android has a long history of hiding delightful surprises, known as Easter eggs, within its operating system. From quirky animations to hidden games, these little gems might not be all that important to most people, but they add a little extra panache and flavor to the world’s biggest operating system.
Sadly, the Android Easter egg hasn’t been available since the first release back in 2008. No, it wasn’t added until version 2.3 or Android Gingerbread. It was super simple back then, just an image that featured a possessed Gingerbread man and some skeletons with the “Bugdroid” chilling out.
Android 3.0 Honeycomb added a bit Tron-inspired bee with a toast message that read “REZZZZZZZ…” Ice Cream Sandwich added the first fully animated Android Easter egg. It featured floating Bugdroids dressed up in ice cream sandwiches that constantly swim across your display in landscape mode.
Jelly Bean added the first truly interactive Android Easter egg. After activating tapping and holding the Jelly Bean icon to unleashed a cascade of colorful jelly beans that you could flick and tap creating an on-screen mess. Android KitKat was a product tie in with just the US “KitKat” logo appearing in place of the traditional icon.
Lollipop took things up a notch with a fully-fledged Flappy Bird clone, tapping into the viral gaming craze of the time. This addictive mini-game provided endless entertainment when you lacked an internet connection. Marshmallow added a hidden sweet treat but also changed the Lollipop icons to “M” icons within the Flappy Bird game to signify the system update.
More recent Easter eggs feel toned down in comparison. Nougat introduced Android Neko, a virtual pet that users could care for, complete with feeding and playtime. Oreo added a weird puppet-like octopus that you can drag around the screen and watch it float or sink in a mini aquarium.
From Android 9.0 Pie onwards, things have been less whacky. The Pie icon is trippy, but long-pressing the logo activated a note-taking app – which is pretty cool.
Android 10’s Easter egg offers a Nonogram with instructions on how to color in the grid and create pixel art style images. Maybe the ideas ran out in 2020, as Android 11 re-added the Neko Cat Easter egg from Nougat. It works with the now-defunct power button Home Controls.
Android 12 kept things simple with an interactive clock that once you set to 12:00 will showcase the “12” logo surrounded by Dynamic Color supporting blobs. Change your wallpaper colorscheme and it’ll also change to reflect that. Android 13 was a revision of the previous Easter egg with emoji filling the screen when you tapped those colorful blobs.
With Android 14 and 15, we have a return to Easter egg games. Both feature space exploration with the ability to land and plant a flag on planets in a mini solar system added in 2024. However, Android 15 includes a second part. Once activated, you’ll gain the option to add the “Landroid” screen saver, which is basically a brief video of the little spacecraft navigating to planets, planting a flag, and then starting the process all over again. It’s a neat extra tagged on to what was basically the same Easter egg back-to-back.
So, which Android Easter egg steals the show for you? Is it the one that made you laugh out loud, the one that challenged your gaming skills, or perhaps the one that simply brought a smile to your face? Let us know your pick by voting in our poll below!
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