A new easter egg has been found in Google search results, which guides users through a 1-minute breathing exercise.
This feature appears when terms such as “breathing exercise” and “deep breathing” are searched for.
The exercise encourages the user to breathe slowly in and out for one minute while being mindful of the breath.
See what it’s like in the screenshots below.
At the top right-hand corner, there is a share button you can use to send the exercise to someone else. Could be a subtle way of telling them to chill out for a minute.
Is there a need for this kind of thing?
Google’s breathing exercise is virtually the same as the one that the Apple Watch guides users through with its daily breathe reminders.
So Apple found it was necessary enough to bake it into a piece of wearable hardware.
In addition, mindfulness is one of the fastest growing app categories right now in terms of revenue.
As basic as Google’s exercise may seem, it is nevertheless a form of mindfulness.
People are clearly interested in gaining a greater sense of mental clarity, and a one-minute breather may be exactly what someone needs if they’ve turned to Google for breathing exercises.
In any case, this feature is arguably more useful than the other easter eggs Google has introduced in recent years. Such as the fidget spinner and the collection of animal sounds.
Another positive thing is that the feature is fairly unobtrusive and still leaves organic search results visible.
