From Google to Flutterwave, Here are the Top April Fools’ Day Pranks in the Tech Space

Yesterday, April 1 was April Fools’ Day. Although it’s getting harder and harder for people, especially brands, to trick their customers on April Fools’ Day, technology and social media still plays a huge role in aiding brands storm their customers with jokes.

April Fools' Day to you doggo pic.twitter.com/EnQha1aQy4

— Mothership.sg (@MothershipSG) April 2, 2019

Many tech startups/companies, used this day also to have fun with their products and messaging, giving consumers a good laugh. So while you might have also been pranked by friends and family (wink), here is a list of best pranks played by tech companies yesterday.

Google’s New Offerings

As is its custom, Google didn’t fail to exercise their wit and humor yesterday. The tech giant introduced our old-school favorite game, Snake to its Maps interface. The company also claimed to have a physical Screen Cleaner feature in the Files app to help you clean the dirt and smudges on your phone screen…

Adding a game to a website isn't an april fools prank unless it somehow relates to current events or is ironic in some way. It's just a game. Google Maps, I'm looking at you! https://t.co/oU2n00zjff

— Thomas Limoncelli 7k (@yesthattom) April 1, 2019

The company’s owned Waymo also announced Waymo Pet – a self-driving service for your pets.

Flutterwave’s Futuristic Payment Technologies

Nigerian payments company, Flutterwave was not left out of the trend as the company unveiled a futuristic payment technology called the Glovepay. The technology is supposed to allow you to make payments with just a handshake. Sounds Star Wars-ish, doesn’t it?

"I don't have change", "I forgot my ATM card", "Our PoS is down," are actually outdated sentences but NOT via #GlovePay. Yup, just kidding. #AprilFoolsDay 🥳

Read more here: https://t.co/ubEKMnjLyK pic.twitter.com/kcydCnUwSj

— Flutterwave (@theflutterwave) April 1, 2019

The company also unveiled an NFC wristband and card that works with their payments app, GetBarter.

Actually, @getbarterapp, our payment app, does offer seamless payments using an NFC wristband & card already used at @EkoCocktailClub's event at @saborlagos & coming to @GidiFest next. pic.twitter.com/2aMjoyZG6T

— Flutterwave (@theflutterwave) April 1, 2019

Tinder Height Verification

Popular dating site, Tinder announced a height verification feature. The feature is supposed to give verified people a badge of honor after their heights have been verified when they take pictures by a commercial building.

Introducing the thing you never asked for, but definitely always wanted—Tinder Height Verification. Coming soon.
Read more about it here: https://t.co/8MER0L1U6W pic.twitter.com/hZ507zSoic

— Tinder (@Tinder) March 29, 2019

According to the dating site said, “we’re expecting to see a huge decline in the 80% of males on Tinder who are claiming that they are well over 6 feet. That’s fine by us — as long as we’re all living our truths.”

A loud Amen to that…

Elon Musk Goes Rapping

Tech Mogul, Elon Musk got rap-inspired and decided to release a 2 minute auto tuned rap single titled “RIP Harambe” on Sound Cloud.

Making The Onion articles real …https://t.co/O7855d9BWu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2019

Elon Musk releases rap about Harambe, portrays the killed zoo gorilla "sipping on some Bombay"https://t.co/DjyOuaMRPc pic.twitter.com/m3cIGbBiOj

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 1, 2019

The song definitely was a hit having been streamed over 250,000 times. Lets hope an EP is in the works.