Android’s Quirky History: A Look Back at Every Easter Egg

Before we reveal the secret of all the Android Easter Eggs, why not try it out for yourself? You can easily activate the Easter egg of the installed version in the settings of your smartphone. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Open the Settings app.
• Tap on the About phone option.
• Choose Android version.
• Tap the Android version field several times.

Depending on the manufacturer of your cell phone, this process may differ slightly. You may therefore have to search a little for the Android version. But it is always this field that you have to tap many times—that’s a promise!

Last year’s Android easter introduced the space-themed Landroid mini game. It can be activated similar to the steps above. In the center is a round image that reminds me strongly of “Planet Express” from Futurama. If you hold your finger on the symbol for a long time, the background starts to move faster and the rocket launch begins.

As soon as you have pressed long enough, you will be thrown into a pixel universe. Once there, you use your finger to steer a small spaceship through the vastness of the Android universe. The little ship is also a clear homage to Space Invaders. This year, Android seems to be focusing everything on the vastness of space. Give it a try and see how far you can fly.

And it doesn’t stop there! After opening the regular Android 12 Easter Egg, you will find a new widget called Android S Easter Egg that displays a big matrix of colors derived from your current phone wallpaper or color palette. Tap on the individual colors to share them, or simply copy them to use on apps that were not adapted to Material You.

Android 11

The hidden Easter Egg game within Android 11 is called “Android Neko”. This, however, is not an entirely new game and it has appeared before, back in Android Nougat. Here, you will have to find the so-called “Cat Controls” and feed your kitten. It’s almost a contemporary Tamagotchi.

Android 10 is a milestone in the history of the operating system. It was also the first occasion where Google decided to no longer name the version of Android with the names of popular desserts. However, the good news is that despite this, the tenth version of the OS did not give up the famous Easter Egg.

Google presents a seemingly trivial screen that shows the wording android 10, with the numbers in the foreground. But interactivity is not lacking: you can, in fact, move the numbers and the word android to any point on the screen.

Android 8.0 Oreo

The new Easter egg features a blue screen with a black octopus floating around. The octopus has an (Easter) egg-shaped head, which you can drag around the screen if you want to, and his eight (think Android 8.0) legs will follow. While this isn’t the most engaging little feature, it’s a nice addition.

Android 7.0 Nougat features an Easter egg where your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to attract cats to eat plates of food you serve up. Yes, it’s actually true – we couldn’t make this stuff up if we wanted to. You can set this up as follows:

• Go to the Settings menu.
• Scroll to About phone.
• Tap on the Android version until the N appears on the screen.
• The cat emoji should appear directly underneath the N.
• When the cat’s head appears, this means you’ve successfully activated the Nougat Easter egg. You’re not finished yet, as there are a few more steps to complete:
• Open your quick settings menu (drag down from the top of your display twice).
• Tap on Edit.
• Drag the new icon Empty dish to your notifications bar.

Now you’ll be able to attract cats. To do this, tap on Empty dish to select the bait of your choice, and wait. When a cat comes to the dish, you’ll be notified. You can even give the cat a name and share it with your friends. The cats will disappear after a while. 

Android 6.0 Marshmallow features another Flappy Bird-inspired mini-game as its Easter egg, only this time, you must navigate through the lollipops to get the marshmallows at the end of them. It’s still a frustratingly difficult game; access it by tapping your device’s software version until a Marshmallow appears and then long-press it.

For the Android 5.0 Lollipop Easter egg, Google took inspiration from a pop culture phenomenon of the time, which was Flappy Bird. Tapping the software version will produce a flying Bugdroid that you must guide between Lollipop obstacles. It’s an infuriating game that plays very similar to Flappy Bird. 

Android 4.4 KitKat’s Easter egg paid homage to all of the past versions of Android. Go to Settings > About phone and tap the Android version several times. A spinning letter K will appear which you can tap and hold to reveal the KitKat logo. Tap and hold that and a board of colored tiles featuring the logos of past Android versions will be revealed.

Devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be greeted by a huge smiling red jelly bean in this version’s Easter egg. Access it the same way as the others and long press on the giant jelly bean to flood your displays with more beans. Swipe these to fling them in any direction.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb’s Easter egg is far less scary than Gingerbread’s, but it’s nonetheless strange. Go through the same steps as mentioned above to activate it, and what you will see is a neon bee. A square box will appear underneath the bee’s stinger, housing the word ‘REZZZZZ’.

In the Tron universe—which the bee appears to be part of—‘Rezzing’ is the term used for generating a person or object in its game grid. Quite why Google is riffing on Tron, we don’t know.

The Easter egg found in Android 2.3 Gingerbread is frightening. Featuring a hand-painted picture of a demonic, bow-tie-wearing, yellow-eyed gingerbread man, a disconcerted Bugdroid, and zombies, this first Easter egg is not only unsettling but strikingly different from Google’s later attempts. Thankfully.  

To view this—as well as all of the other Easter eggs on our list—go into your device’s Settings, choose About phone, and tap on the Android version until the Easter egg appears. 

And you, have you found your Android’s little surprise? Which Easter Egg was your favorite so far? Please let us know what you think in the poll below.

This article was updated in April 2025. Old comments have been preserved.