Amazon’s artificially intelligent assistant, Alexa, can now spoil your pets silly with its new Petlexa mode, which allows animals to interact with the smart home speaker.
It’s perfect for those moments when your cat is home alone, feeling persnickety about the food you left and decides she’d rather order a jumbo sushi platter from Amazon Restaurants. Or when your fitness-conscious hamster wants to count how many steps he’s taken on his spinning wheel.
The feature is – of course – an April Fools’ Day gag. But to Amazon’s credit, a Dr. Dolittle of sorts for the digital age does seem like an intriguing idea.
Companies are rolling out their best pranks today in an effort to generate laughs and – if they play their cards right – a little positive attention, too.
Speaking of cards, sometimes traditional business cards just won’t cut it. Moo, the on-demand printing company, showed off its newest product, NanoCards, touting them as a “small card that makes a big connection.”
The tiny cards are perfect if you’re networking with tiny creatures in the animal kingdom, like bees, since there’s an option to print your details in UV ink to fit a bee’s field of vision.
“I play a lot of golf in my spare time, and you never know who you’re going to meet on the course. It’s a great opportunity to cement new relationships – and if you’re going to introduce yourself properly, you need a great business card to do the job,” Cornelius Martin, a bee from London, was quoted as saying.
T-Mobile, which likes to talk about its complete network coverage, now wants to really make sure you’re physically covered, with a wearable magenta onesie that would make CEO John Legere proud.
“You’ll look hot as an unlimited human hotspot,” the fake commercial promises.
In honor of April Fools’ Day, Man Crates, a website with gifts geared toward men, decided to make their man crates big enough to fit an actual, medium-sized man.
“The most impactful gifts are the ones given in person, but with the pricey costs of airfare and the ‘mystery scents’ of bus travel, most long-distance gift-givers have resigned to just shipping their gifts,” the company said. “That all changes today.”
Here’s how the gag works: You’d go to the Man Crates factory and get comfortable inside a 16-square foot crate. You’d be boarded up and shipped off until your best bro pries the crate open and gets what is – hopefully – a welcome surprise.
The dating apps are also getting in on the joke. Hinge has a hilarious idea that may strike fear in the hearts of every person who has relatives nagging about when they’re going to get married.
Hinge’s terrifying Parental Controls feature lets users give their parents access to their dating profile, where they can set parent-only filters for the type of matches their progeny is getting.
Those filters include occupation (who doesn’t want a doctor in the family?), a timeframe for when they want kids, distance from the parents, and whether they’re available for any upcoming holidays.
Members will then only match with people who meet their parents’ preferences.
Food delivery service DoorDash also has a unique idea to give parents a break when it comes to cooking. It’s called Meal Override Mode, or M.O.M.
Related: Google’s 2016 April Fools’ ‘Mic Drop’ Joke Goes Awry
Your little ones can practice math when ordering food, are forced to add at least one handful of veggies to their order and while they wait for delivery, will be given a list of chores they can do and the estimated time it will take to do them.
Mall mainstay Auntie Anne’s is also making a play for the younger generation on April Fools’ Day, by adding the ubiquitous Snapchat crown to their logo.
We think millennials still like her pretzels, anyway, but the company hopes the familiar flower crown will keep them coming back for more.
