How to uncover a bunch of fun Easter eggs hidden in Google Hangouts

If there's ever a time for celebrating the Easter Eggs, today's the day. There are a few fun tricks hidden inside Hangouts, Google's chat platform.

Everyone using Hangouts has access to a bunch of emoji, but you can shock your friends by making a few unlisted animations appear if you know the secrets:

Try typing "LMAO," "happy birthday," or "woot:"

Here's one to break out on January 1. Try "Happy New Year!":

There are a bunch of other ones too:

The effect of "/ponies" or "/ponystream" are seen above. "/Pitchforks" makes an angry mob stampede across the chat window, "/bikeshed" changes the background color of both parties' chat windows, the KONAMI cheat will only change your background color, and "/shydino" will bring you a cute little dinosaur.

NOW WATCH: The world's first custom pancake printer has already made over $320,000 on Kickstarter