5 April Fool's Day Jokes That Came True

Who knew orangutans using iPads would actually become "a thing?"

ByABC News
April 1, 2015, 4:42 PM
April Fools Day
April Fools Day
Getty Images

— -- The Internet is teeming with April Fool's jokes and pranks today, but while Google's "Smart Mailbox" and toddler dating app "Hinge" aren't actually real, they could be in the near future.

Here are five April Fool's Day jokes of the past that have since then come true:

1. Gorillas Using iPads

British tabloid The Sun ran a story on April 1, 2011 about gorillas getting iPads to aid their alertness and "keep them happier in zoos."

Though the story was a complete fabrication, primates using iPads is now "a thing."

Orangutans at the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin started using iPads later that year in September for enrichment activities. Zookeepers wanted to see if they could use Skype to connect their primates with other orangutans in zoos around the world, the Seattle Times reported.

Today, the organization Orangutan Outreach says it uses iPads donated by National Geographic to "provide stimulating enrichment and immediate gratification" for orangutans in zoos and to promote conservation efforts.

The program is aptly called "Apps for Apes."

2. Unborn Children Using Social Media

Tech outlet CNet tricked readers in 2007 when they announced a new social network called Ultrasound "aimed at unborn children who want to blog their lives and post pictures and videos of their dwelling space to share with friends."

CNet joked that they had tested out the service and got a text message that said, "O/?/womb RDY 2 PRTY?"

Though no technology has currently allowed fetuses to text, there is now a wearable belt called the "Kickbee" that detects a baby kicking in the womb and then sends a notification through text or Twitter.

"The application logs into the Twitter messaging platform via its API and updates the Kickbee’s account with a new message, such as 'I kicked Mommy at 5:17 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, 2009!' says the product's website.

3. "Ratattale" - A New York City Rat Information Map

Another CNet joke from 2007 claimed that a new "real-time Google Maps mashup" would allow user to "report on which dining establishments in their cities have had issues with rodents recently."

Apparently, all you had to do was hit the "tattle button," the tech outlet reported.

Though "Ratattle" never became a real app, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did create a "Rat Information Portal" to map out rat inspections throughout the city. It was released January of last year.

4.Human Settlement on Mars Venture

Google wrote a fake blog post in 2008 announcing a partnership with Virgin Group to launch Virgle Inc., a venture "dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars."

The post said Virgin Group's president Sir Richard Branson called Virgle an "interplanetary Noah's ark."

Virgle may never take off, but the Dutch start-up Mars One claims it's going to go on a one-way trip to Mars in the hopes of establishing a colony.

5. The iPhone

On an April Fool's nearly a decade ago, gadget site Pocket-Lint pranked users by saying Apple announced "a mobile phone add-on for the iPod."

Though the site quickly said the announcement was fake and Apple had nothing to do with the joke, it did say, "Let's hope something like this will be available one day!"

Eerily, three years later, Apple released its first iPhone in 2007.

Coincidence? You decide.