Searching your photo library for the word “Halloween” in Google Photos will list all of your Halloween party pictures from previous years… and it also sees a small pumpkin roll from the left hand-side of your display, stop in the middle of your smartphone touchscreen, wink – and light-up.
It’s a cute little easter egg that most Google Photos users probably won’t even realise exists until they’re maniacally searching for costume inspiration by searching for their previous efforts in the app.
It also serves as a clever reminder from Google about its nifty search functionality in Google Photos.
Google is able to intelligently figure-out what’s depicted in your images, so searching for “dog”, “skiing”, or “swimming pool” should surface long-forgotten results from your library that contain any of the search terms. And the pumpkin animation isn’t the only easter egg for All Hallows Eve buried in Google’s products and service.
The Mountain View-based company has also got into the festivities by introducing spooky Twitter names for its social media accounts – Boogle instead of Google, that sort of thing.
Googlers at the Seattle office have made a graveyard for product lines that have been axed by the company too – a fun nod to some of the failed products introduced by the company over the years. As always, there is a Google Doodle on the main Google homepage too.
The news comes in the same month that Google introduced its new flagship smartphone, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, as well as a (very) slightly updated Google Nest Mini, and new Google Wi-Fi mesh network hubs that incorporate the Google Assistant for the first time.