What’s up with iOS 11’s spinning App Store buttons?

Google might have a penchant of including Easter eggs in every version of Android, but that doesn’t mean Apple is devoid of whimsy. Take, for example, the mysterious case of spinning buttons in the App Store.

Every once in a while, the ‘Open’ button on a recently updated app will begin to rotate; the app is seemingly chosen at random. The, umm, feature appears to have been added with iOS 11, and as far as we can tell, there’s nothing triggering the spins. It just happens spontaneously. and seems somewhat rare.

That said, we’re not the only ones who spotted the Easter egg. Take this post on Reddit or a fair number of mentions on Twitter:

Anyone else seen this App Store button effect (spinning bg)? @peterhanspers @alexdrone pic.twitter.com/4Nr9YcKSEl

— Jonas Salling (@salling) October 30, 2017

The coolest new feature of #ios11? The spinning buttons under the Update tab in the App Store. It gives the software a sense of whimsy. ? pic.twitter.com/frwthETWO0

— Mark Bailey, Jr. (@MarkBailey_Jr) October 3, 2017

I’ve just updated an #iPhoneX app and they Grey background behind the open button in App Store is spinning?!?

— Rob (@robmckenzieuk) November 9, 2017

Or at least, we think it’s an Easter egg. It’s hard to imagine how a spinning button could be the result of buggy code, but you never know. We’ve contacted Apple to see whether this was intentional or not and will update this post if we hear back.