Thanos Snap on Google: A Dated Timeline
One click on a gauntlet icon, and half the page turned to dust. Google ran that joke in the spring of 2019.
The demo above rebuilds the effect with its own glowing icon and invented results. Here is how the real one came and went.
- April 27, 2018: Avengers: Infinity War opens in US theaters. It ends with Thanos snapping his fingers to wipe out half of all life.
- April 26, 2019: Avengers: Endgame opens. News sites report that a search for Thanos now shows the Infinity Gauntlet beside the results.
- April 2019: A click on the gauntlet makes it snap. Results crumble to dust with sound, and the result count drops by half.
- April 2019: A second click uses the Time Stone, and every lost result comes back.
- Later: Google removes the trick. A thanos snap google search now returns plain results.
How the Thanos Snap Effect Works Under the Hood
Web pages cannot shatter text on their own. So this demo paints each doomed result onto a hidden canvas first.
Step 1: copy the pixels
The script draws every word of the result at its exact spot on the screen. Then it reads back the colour of each pixel.
Step 2: turn ink into grains
Every second inked pixel becomes a grain of dust. One result yields a few thousand of them.
At the same moment, the real result hides. The swap happens in one frame, so it is hard to spot.
Step 3: let the grains drift
Each grain waits a short, random delay, starting from the left edge. Then it drifts right and up, wobbles, and fades out.
Restore runs the same maths in reverse. The grains fly back to their home pixels, and the real text returns.
Who gets picked
A coin toss for each card would give uneven splits. The script shuffles the list and takes half, so three of six always go.
Thanos Snap Variants: Search Terms, Sound and Speed
Google’s version answered more than one search. Reports list Thanos, Thanos glove and Infinity Gauntlet as triggers.
Sound was part of the gag too. News stories in 2019 told readers to turn their volume up first.
This page adds two switches of its own:
- Slow dust doubles the drift time, so you can follow single grains.
- Sound plays a finger click and a soft hiss, built live with the Web Audio API.
Other tricks wreck the results in their own way. Google Gravity drops them to the floor, and Zerg Rush sends a swarm to eat them.
Thanos Snap Not Working? Try These Fixes
- Nothing happens on Google: the 2019 egg is gone, so use the demo above.
- You see a fade, not dust: your device asks for reduced motion, and the demo respects that.
- No sound: tap the page once. Browsers block audio until you interact. Check the Sound switch too.
- The icon ignores you: wait for the dust to settle. Clicks mid-snap do nothing.
- The dust stutters: close a few tabs, or switch on Slow dust to spread the work out.
For another film-night trick, the Grogu easter egg lifts results with the Force.
FAQs
What happens when you Google Thanos?
Today you get plain results. In 2019, a search for Thanos showed a gauntlet icon beside the results. One click made it snap, and about half of the results crumbled away into dust.
Does the Thanos Google trick still work?
No. Google has removed it from Search. It ran in 2019 to mark the release of Avengers: Endgame. The demo on this page copies the effect with its own icon and invented results.
How do you undo the Thanos snap on Google?
In the 2019 version you clicked the gauntlet a second time. That called on the Time Stone and rebuilt every result that had vanished. On this page, press the icon again or hit Restore.
When did the Thanos Google easter egg come out?
It was live by April 26, 2019, the day Avengers: Endgame opened in US theaters. News sites covered it that same day. It played on the snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
