Every year, Google teases the biggest event in Android with a puzzle — when (or if) the community solves it, the date for that year’s Google I/O conference will be revealed, giving us a precise time to expect the developer-summit-turned-media-extravaganza in Mountain View. Like speculation around Android’s next desert codename or its hidden Easter egg and mascot, it’s a fun tradition with low stakes that we can’t help but take way too seriously.
Look back on last year’s puzzle and I/O date reveal
Could past puzzles hold any clues for I/O 2024?
We don’t have much to go on at the moment, but Google has set its I/O 2024 puzzle page live and is urging us to “Twist, turn, and teleport” our way to an answer. The puzzle itself looks like a colorful line art version of Monument Valley, with platforms you can turn, shuffle, or slide to redirect a globe around an MC Escher-style obstacle course.
In total, there are 15 mini-puzzles that need to be solved in a linear progression, meaning you have to figure out the first one before you can unlock the second, and so on. The first puzzle is easy enough, consisting of a few squares with bends that you need to place in the right spots to connect the start and finish lines. But the second puzzle introduces a new mechanic with circular pieces that can be clicked or tapped to change the direction of the bend — which sounds like it might make things easier, but with the extra wrinkle of omnidirectional curves, the possibilities for placement grow exponentially.
We’re still digging in and monitoring Twitter and Reddit for clues, but let’s be honest — nobody here at AP is solving this thing, so we’ll keep an ear to the ground and update this page if one of the true puzzle-solving geniuses out there makes any progress.
