Chromebooks have a secret minigame built-in that celebrates their tenth anniversary

Google is apparently not done celebrating the tenth anniversary of Chromebooks yet because it’s buried a secret mini-game in the operating system for you to enjoy. I was poking around looking for new features and upon opening the Explore app and visiting the ‘What’s New’ section, I was met with a bunch of balloons that flew from the bottom of the window to the top (see the video below)! A super cool nod to the ongoing festivities including loads of new features like Holding Space – which is now your Tote – the improved screen recorder, Phone Hub, and more.

In order to play the mini-game, you’ll just need to visit the ‘What’s New’ section of the Explore app as previously mentioned, and click the blue ‘Celebrate with us’ button! Once you do, you’ll be invited to pop as many balloons as you can before the 15-second timer expires. When the game begins, Google-colored balloons fly up the screen in clusters, and you’ll just need to tap or click them to get points. My personal high score was 77 balloons, but I was barely trying (I swear!). Once you’re finished, you’ll be shown a party popper with your final score and some fun confetti.

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Google has some pretty incredible things planned for the future of Chrome OS – new built-in sensors, better native integration with the Assistant, and more. While we don’t yet know all of what that entails, they did mention that they would like to integrate more sensors like you find in modern smartphones, and even with that one sentence, the possibilities are near limitless. One thing is for sure, the company has shown that despite its track record with ‘sunsetting’ things, it has no intention of giving up on Chromebooks, and after 10 years of investment they’re just getting started.

While you’re in the ‘What’s New’ section of the app, take some time to make yourself familiar with all of the fantastic new things your Chromebook is capable of. We have extensive coverage on each of these new items as well. I keep thinking to myself how the developers have probably been waiting to see how long it took someone to find this secret little celebration minigame. Let us know in the comments what your high score was and then mention your favorite new Chromebook feature. Oh, and happy gaming!