And now we can’t live without them!

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If you are anything like me, you must have wondered several times while using any software- ‘How did they come up with this feature?’.

From undoing sent mail to handy keyboard shortcuts, I have always admired the genius of the developers who came up with these features. But as with everything in life, there is more to this than meets the eye, and the whole software development lifecycle is not as planned as we’d like to think- even when it comes to tech giants like Google.

Some of the most fundamental features of today’s software and game were just mere accidents, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. In fact, one can argue that without these ‘bugs turned to features’, the software would not have any claim to fame.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

‘Unsend’ mail and messages feature

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I can’t recollect how many times I have noticed a typo just after hitting the ‘Send’ button.

Yes, this lifesaving feature was born out of a bug. Gmail took 5 seconds to process the email which is actually a lot of time, especially when you think how snappy tech has become.

The team at Google smartly turned this processing time into a feature that we now call the ‘Undo’ button.

The feature is so well received that other platforms like Outlook and Facebook have also implemented their version of it. Facebook has even gone one step further and introduced the ‘undo’ feature to Friend Requests.

The police car chase in Grand Theft Auto

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Grand Theft Auto followed Race and Chase. Race and Chase was truly the precursor of Grand Theft Auto. The game consisted of an open world where the player had the freedom to choose either a cop or a criminal role. There were multiple game modes, but the most notable turned out to be the police chase.

In an interview, GTA designer Gary Penn said “One day, I think it was a bug, the police suddenly became mental and aggressive. It was because they were trying to drive through you. Their route finding was screwed I think, and that was an awesome moment, because suddenly the real drama was, “Oh my God, the police are psycho — they’re trying to ram me off the road.”

Little did he know that it would become the favourite time pass of GTA players all over the world!

Editing MySpace profile

Remember the good old days when life was simple and MySpace was all the hype?

MySpace was a gateway to the world of social media for many of the 90s kids. But for some, it was the start of their coding journey as well.

HTML and CSS could be used to bring your MySpace profile to life. Tweaking anchor and style tags used to make your MySpace profile really unique and personal.

People went nuts after this feature. But it is a lesser-known fact that it was in fact a bug that enabled users to inject their own custom HTML and CSS.

Green lightning

Originally referred to as random flashing streaks across the screen of IBM 3278–9 computer terminals, it was caused by a hardware bug that used to randomly flicker green light when a heavy operation was carried out by the computer.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Back in the day, downloading files was considered as a heavy operation, and this bug became a signal for users to know that they were downloading something.

IBM later moved to microprocessor driven terminals which didn’t produce the flashing streaks.

However, the bug was so handy that later IBM had to reproduce it intentionally- since the bug had become a vital feature.

Ctrl+Alt+Del

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All windows are familiar with this shortcut, and there is a high chance that everyone must have used it at least a few times in their entire life.

For the uninitiated, by holding these three keyboard keys simultaneously you can enter close down an application that is not responding, reboot, log in, lock, or switch user. Earlier it was required to enter this shortcut in order to log in to Windows. The keyboard shortcut was invented by David Bradley, one of the engineers who worked on the original IBM PC.

While discussing his early days building Microsoft, Bill Gates said “It was a mistake” about this shortcut. Initially, this shortcut was rather an odd requirement to log in. It was designed so that no other apps can fake login prompts.

They ended up not removing this useful shortcut, and as time passed by it became a standard feature. You can even find this shortcut work on Windows 10.

Takeaway

These are just five examples showcasing that things might turn worst before they get better. If the developers weren’t smart enough to make the best of the situation, we would not have seen such features probably ever.

On a deeper level, we should apply this principle to our lives as well. Instead of whining about our problems, it is wise to look at things from a different perspective.

“You can never connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”- Steve Jobs

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. After all, it all comes down to how you interpret everything.