Alternatively, hover the mouse arrow over volume in YouTube and you’ll hear the electric swish of a light sabre firing up. Check out Google Maps on the desktop, where if you’ve followed the Dark Side, the Street View stick man changes to become a little Stormtrooper. Google wants to help you out. Of course, the choice is yours. You can see a couple of the links on the Google.com/starwars/ page once you choose your side. It says that some services may take a few hours to change after a user has chosen or switched side. Your location icon will either be a Tie Fighter or an X-wing – while they may appear subtle, they’re incredibly neat hints at the upcoming movie and an awesome feature for Star Wars fans.
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Abrams has generations of Star Wars fans to please with Episode VII – The Force Awakens and he is very cognisant of this reality. The functionality of Google apps will not be affected-though on the surface, there’ll be a whole lot of Star Wars. Or if you’d rather, you can join the Light side, otherwise known as the losing side at the moment (though not by much). Best of all, you can decide if you stand with Rey and the Resistance or Kylo Ren and the First Order.
Sign in to choose your side by sliding your profile picture left (Jedi) or right (Sith).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out in United Kingdom cinemas on the 17th December. We’ve got more coming between now and opening night – the Millennium Falcon in all its (virtual) glory included, so stay tuned. The Alphabet-owned internet giant has launched a campaign dubbed #ChooseYourSide, which adds subtle Star Wars-themed changes to YouTube and other Google properties.
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Google’s having a lot of fun with this promotion, and there’s even a video to go along with it. The Star Wars experience will work across all devices, including Android phones and tablets, iOS devices, Macs and Windows systems, and Chromebooks.
