Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo



Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

As fun as it is to wander the show floor and see new devices, Mobile World Congress is work, and every attendee is there for a purpose. Exhibitors need to tend to visitors, executives are making deals, journalists have to cover everything, and everyone has meetings with everyone else. Leave it to Google, though, to inject a little whimsy into the show by turning Mobile World Congress into a big game. The company recruited its Android partners for a giant scavenger hunt across the 300,000 square feet of expo space.

We were hunting for lapel pins—little metal Android-shaped pins. Each had a different design made with Google's Androidify app, which lets you size, dress, and accessorize the Android mascot to your liking. To find the pins, players had to look for the Android statues. All the Android partners—Samsung, HTC, Intel, ARM, and many others—had a beautifully-rendered two-foot Android statue in their booth somewhere with a bowl of pins nearby. Each company has two to three different designs, which they were instructed to hand out on different days of the show. There were about 120 designs in total.

The headquarters of the game were two "Lollipop-up" booths that Google set up in between the MWC halls. The booths informed people of the game, handed out pins, and even had a smoothie bar! Touchscreens all over the booth let people make a character in Androidify and print out the design on a bag or MWC badge holder, but most importantly, these booths were where you got the map—your guide to the game.

Everyone at the show had to wear a badge on the end of a lanyard, which quickly became the standard display space for your Android pins. How many can you find? The game's low-key start was rather fun. You stumbled upon the Android booth, or found a single pin at a booth, or saw someone wearing a pin. "Where did you get that little Android pin?!" people would ask, and then the game spread. Players started taking duplicate pins for trading, and booth reception desks occasionally turned into trade tables. The Keepers of the Pins at certain booths quickly realized the power they had, and they could be bribed to dig into their multi-day stash if you brought them a pin they didn't have yet. The top players quickly became familiar with each other, since they were always bumping into each other at the various booths and trading pins or strategies. There was even an online strategy guide. Google had turned Mobile World Congress into a real-life Pokémon.

Some pins were rarer than others. Some companies didn't understand the game at first and didn't put pins out on day one. Others mistakenly put the pin bowls in off-limits locations, requiring brazen tactics to acquire. Other pin locations weren't on the map or were only handed out at the Android booths. There was even a final boss of sorts, a company called "Spreadtrum," which was all the way in Hall 8. The "booth" was on the map, but it was a private meeting room—basically a closed off office at the end of MWC. "Why is this closed room on the map?!" "Do they know they have Android pins?" "Do we knock and interrupt their meeting?" Sometimes the hardest boss is the one you must fight within yourself.

Ars' schedule meant I couldn't stick around for day three, but I ended the show with 96 pins. That was the high score as far as I could tell (and of course, ALL of them ended up on my MWC badge). I covered the lanyard and surrounded my MWC badge, at which point I was forced to upgrade to a second lanyard (which I covered as well). Towards the end of the show I had neck bling that could rival Mr. T, and people kept stopping me on the show floor to take a picture.

I've heard MWC 2015 wasn't the first time Google gave out Android pins, but it was certainly the most elaborate setup. And now that everyone is back home, I suspect completionists will soon be hunting ebay for the pins they couldn't find at the show. I'm fine with my 96 pins though, they ultimately turned my badge into a cool little trophy from the show.

Wait, didn't I go to Mobile World Congress to work on something?