There are plenty of reasons to buy a Wear OS smartwatch, and another excuse has been found, because one of Google's famous Easter eggs has been found hidden within the operating system for wearables.
This Google Easter egg was shown off by 9to5Mac, reportedly discovered prior by Reddit users although we haven't managed to find the thread and no source is cited. We've tested it out though, and this is perfectly legit.
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This Easter egg is a drum machine hidden in the user interface. There's a 4x4 grid of circles that are highlighted one at a time, accompanied by a drum beat. Tapping on a circle allows you to change it, so it plays a different noise.
Interested in testing this out for yourself? You'll need a Wear OS watch (obviously) with a speaker, or audio playback. We tested this out on an Emporio Armani Connected (2018) although plenty of other devices also have speakers. If this applies to you, we'll run you through the few steps required to test this Google Wear OS Easter egg out.
Been playing with the recently-discovered #WearOS drum machine Easter egg. Loving that cowbell, always need more cowbell. pic.twitter.com/xcL2jm9PUOMarch 2, 2020
Find the Wear OS drum machine Easter egg
On your Wear OS smartwatch, first find the app menu – this can easily be accessed on most devices by pressing the crown. Scroll down until you find the 'Torch' or 'Flashlight' option.
Select this, and you'll be presented with the torch itself, which to use normally you tap once to turn the light on, and tap again to turn it off.
For the Easter egg, with the torch off, double tap the screen twice in quick succession and on the second tap, hold down the screen. Instead of lighting up with white, the display should now show a few seconds of different flashing colors, but keep your finger down through this (if you lift your finger it won't work).
Now, you should be presented with the aforementioned grid of circles, with the drum machine working. The audio was switched off the first time we tried it, but tapping the screen changed this.
As reported by 9to5Mac, some users have to go through this process a few times to get it to work. We didn't have this trouble, but if you can't get the Easter egg to work, that's something worth bearing in mind.
Now you can have fun playing about with the Wear OS drum machine – or, if you're anything like us, immediately turning the noise into a cacophony of cowbells.
