Easter Egg Hints At Google Calling Android P “Pineapple”

- April 30, 2018

An Easter egg recently found in the official Google I/O 2018 application may have revealed the official moniker of the upcoming Android P update, suggesting that the next OS iteration will be called Android Pineapple. The hint is presented as a stylized password "p1n3appl3" for the Google I/O Wi-Fi network, with Google providing no more details on the matter.

The p1n3appl3 Easter egg hence suggests that Android P will be known as Pineapple, especially since this is not the first time this particular moniker was mentioned by Google. Back in January, the tech giant began teasing its next I/O conference via an alternate reality game (ARG) that had participants roam around the company's virtual offices in Mountain View in order to find clues and reveal the dates on which the conference will take place. One of the rooms contained a Pineapple cake, which fueled the idea that Android P might borrow the fruit's name for a public release. Naturally, Google may have simply created a diversion and planted these bits of information specifically to mislead those who might find them as a virtual red herring. The company is well-known for generating hype around the naming scheme of its Android operating system, and each new release over the past few years was accompanied by a wide variety of theories aiming to uncover what the final OS name might be. Needless to say, numerous name suggestions over the years turned out to be incorrect. Despite the Pineapple and Pineapple Cake suggestions stemming from these Easter egg hunts, it's always advised to treat these teasers with a proverbial pinch of salt.

Google I/O 2018 is scheduled to begin on May 8, with the event stretching over a period of three days until May 11. There, the final name for Android P may be officially announced by the tech giant, along with more technical details about the new mobile operating system itself. For now, the first developer preview version of Android P is available for download on select devices, though not all features planned to make it to the public release build scheduled for a third-quarter launch are presently available.