It’s an understatement to say that we had a lot of problems and issues this 2020. But among all the concerns we have, there’s probably one that’s way, way, way down on your list but still a concern nonetheless: how to avoid being rick-rolled. Okay, that’s probably not even on your list but we all have to admit it’s annoying as heck when we still fall for the stupid trick of opening a link that leads to this innocuous video from the 80s. But apparently, Android has an easter egg trick to help you avoid this.
If you’ve been living under a digital rock and don’t know what rick-rolling is, it involves getting people to click on a YouTube link thinking that it’s something else when actually it’s just a video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up. It’s a pretty harmless prank of course but it can be annoying at times. Even Twitter was fooled recently when they asked people to share their favorite videos from this year and of course smart alecks started rick-rolling them.
But there might be a “solution” to avoid getting pranked. And apparently, this has something that has been around for months now but not a lot of people know about so consider this as sort-of PSA. Android Police shares that Android’s Smart Reply initiates an easter egg reply when someone sends you a link to the official music video. It will automatically suggest “Not falling for that” , “You got me”, or click the link if you don’t believe you’re being rick-rolled.
The feature was spotted on Twitter recently but apparently as far back as six months ago, someone posted about it on Twitter so we don’t really know how long it has been around. Google has a habit of sneaking in these easter eggs and not announcing it so a lot of them are discovered by accident or by those who are always on the lookout for such neat tricks and treats. Of course, none of them are life-changing but it’s still fun.
So now if anyone tries to rick-roll you, you’ll know better than to click the link. Well, that is, if they send it on apps that support Smart Messaging of course.
