The best and worst April Fools' Day tech gags of 2019

April Fools' Day is here, bringing clever and cringeworthy gags in equal measure.

April Fools' Day is here, and that means a day full of gags as tech brands try to outdo one another. Google in particular likes to go all-out on this day, and while the search giant has created some truly memorable gags over the years — like the Google Gnome — but there was also the infamous mic drop.

Without further ado, here are the best and worst April Fools' Day tech gags of 2019.

Play Snake within Google Maps

Once again, Google is kicking things off with a new feature coming to Maps. Starting today, you'll be able to play Snake from within Google Maps, and you can choose from a variety of cities:

Google Maps shows you how to get around on foot, car, train and bicycle, and now, you can ssslither to your destination too. Starting today, you can play a twist on the snake game in different locations across the world—including Cairo, London, San Francisco, São Paulo, Sydney and Tokyo–right from Google Maps.

To get started, launch Google Maps, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines on the top left), and hit the Play Snake button. If you don't see the feature just yet, wait for the clock to switch over to April 1 in your timezone. Google also has a dedicated website for Snake that will continue to be active "long after April Foolsss is over."

Google's Files app now cleans your phone inside and out

Files by Google does a great job removing unused apps and clutter from your device's internal storage, but what about the outside of your phone? Google is introducing a new screen cleaner feature that will "wash away smudges and polish your screen." Google says screen cleaner uses the "smudge detector API" to identify imperfections using geometric dirt models and a haptic micromovement generator.

Google Assistant now speaks Tulipish

Google Assistant is picking up a new feature that allows it to talk to plants. Dubbed Neural Machine Translation, the technology allows Assistant to understand the language of plants and translate it to human languages. Google is making the tech accessible with the Google Tulip, a smart home device that lets you talk to plants.

The ability to speak with tulips comes with great environmental and societal benefits. Tulips now have a way to indicate to humans that they're in need of water, light or simply some more space. As their needs are expressed more clearly, they are able to live a happier and healthier life.

Socially, it turns out that plants, and particularly tulips, are very chatty, and make for great friends. Tulips are excellent listeners and when listened to carefully, give sound advice.

You can also ask Assistant on your phone or Google Home to talk Tulipish by saying, "Hey Google, talk to my tulip."

OnePlus teases latest upcoming collaboration with McLaren

Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/0Kn0ozIjYh

— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 29, 2019

OnePlus partnered with McLaren over a limited edition 6T, and now the Chinese manufacturer is all set to roll out its latest collaboration. This one probably won't come under $1,000 though.

Get your groove on with Spotify's Discocover Weekly

Is your Discover Weekly playlist a bit off this week? You're not alone, as Spotify's weekly playlist is getting a disco makeover for April Fools' Day. The streaming service even changed the name to Discocover Weekly, which I didn't notice the first time.

Meet R.O.N., NVIDIA's AI-powered holographic assistant

The future of PC gaming is here, and it involves an AI-powered holographic assistant. NVIDIA's R.O.N. AI assistant optimizes your games, keeps you up to date on the latest gaming news, and coach you through your gameplay. R.O.N. also uses cutting-edge tech like RageConverter and TrollDestroyer to help you in challenging gaming situations:

Have anger issues? R.O.N. uses all-new adaptive RageConverter technology to translate any questionable language into supportive messages for your team. You'll avoid punishment, see better squad performance, and appear cool and collected in even the most challenging gaming situations.

Haters got you feeling down on Reddit or Twitch? Don't stress. Just enable R.O.N.'s cutting-edge TrollDestroyer capabilities to effortlessly wear down their stamina with a limitless supply of AI arguments, backed up by the endless wealth of information available on the Internet.

Never speak to your friends again with Razer Ping

Talking in real life is inefficient and requires too much focus, so Razer is rolling out a new service called Razer Ping that makes it easier to communicate:

Talking's for chumps–you say it best, when you say nothing at all. Why flap your gums when you could be taking names? Kill leaders make the most out of every second they have, and by using Razer Ping!, you can increase your productivity by an average of 1337%–according to math.

Simply point your camera at any object and Razer Ping! will contextualize it into a notification sent to users in the vicinity, or to selected friends.

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