April Fools Day. The one day of the calendar when everyone actually checks whether anything on their newsfeed is actually true. As MKBHD taught us with the Pixel 4 leaks, you probably should do that every day. Of course, it’s become an age-old tradition in tech to make ridiculous announcements in tech. And this year we saw a few local companies follow this tradition as well. Here are our top 5 April Fools jokes from the world of tech both locally and globally.
PickMe lunu
Kicking things off, let’s look at the most popular local example on this list. On April Fools day, anyone waking up and wanting to grab a PickMe was greeted to an interesting sight. Alongside the usual options, we saw the hilarious PickMe
The Gamer.lk Powercut league
By now we’ve become all too familiar with the power cuts plaguing the country. In fact this very article was written during a power cut. To say these are annoying and the reasons behind them are ridiculous would be an understatement. As this is slowly becoming the new normal, Gamer.lk has announced a new set of games and leagues for Sri Lankan gamers while the power is out. As stated on their website these games feature, “Artificial Intelligence powered by human thought, combined with potential and kinetic energy conversion in order to generate movement in objects in a state of play.” Granted, this was only a few days before April Fools day but we felt this was too good not to include.
99X Technology introduces Code Cupid
When we first saw this we weren’t really sure whether we should laugh or cringe at this one. Code Cupid is basically Tinder for developers. Why? To quote the above video, “Developers might be geniuses at the keyboard but not so much with dating.” So how does it work? You create an account with your Github account and your “hotness” is decided by your Stackoverflow rating. After hearing that part of the video, we just had to classify this as a joke so bad that it’s actually good.
Ye Olde Jester Google
Moving onto some of the more popular examples of April Fools jokes globally, one cannot ignore Google. It has held onto its crown as the greatest jester in tech on April Fools day with ridiculous yet hilarious product announcements. This year we saw Google Tulip, which is a new feature for Google Assistant that allows you to communicate with Tulips. We also saw another announcement regarding the Google Files app getting a new feature that cleans your physical screen of dirt with its new Smudge Detector API. Finally, there was Google Maps, which transformed into the classic game SNAKE.
The deadly Duolingo
If you’ve ever wanted to learn a new language online, chances are you’ve heard of Duolingo. But in case you’re lost, this is an app that offers simple lessons bite-sized daily lessons to help you learn a new language. However, it’s a running joke among Duolingo users that many quit after the first few lessons despite the constant reminders. And Duolingo knows this. That’s why it’s introduced Duolingo push. It’s a subscription service where the actual Duolingo owl visits you to remind you in person to take your Spanish lessons. As stated on their website, “Ignore at your own risk.”
There you have it
That’s our top pick of April Fools jokes from 2019. But before we end this list, we’d like to dedicate a moment to WSO2. While silent this year, in previous years we’ve seen the company make hilarious April Fools jokes. One iconic example being their Toilet Middleware. Another was when they announced that their AI predicted Donald Trump would win the US presidency with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though considering how things have unfolded, we’re not exactly sure if we can count that last one as an April Fools joke anymore.