Google: Paper Planes

Paper Planes let people use their phones to create, fold, throw, and catch paper planes. Once thrown, a plane entered a shared virtual world, at Google I/O projected across the fifty-foot main-stage screen.

Every plane was stamped with location data before it launched, so you could catch a stranger's plane, unfold it, and see how far it had traveled to reach you.

It launched simultaneously at every Google I/O Extended event around the world, turning a keynote gimmick into a small global gesture of connection. More than a million planes were thrown across 158 countries.