It’s done via HTTP header called “user-agent”. The HTTP defines, among the rest, how web browser identifies itself to web server. Having no prior knowledge of how android users connect to Google Talk, I made an educated guess based on my knowledge of how websites identify clients: according to the browser. In order to win our green robot, we must make Google Talk believe we are connected through android, and for that purpose we need to understand how it identifies android users. I used another computer, making my testing environment as neutral as possible. There are many workarounds, like simply using different browsers, or different computers (could be virtual as well). It’s somewhat problematic to sign in with two different accounts using the same browser. Where do we start ? we need to be able to determine success, meaning sign-in to gmail as one of our chat buddies, enable green robot feature and check if we appear as cute android. Before I began, I had no idea how long would it take, whether it’s possible or not and if I have the necessary tools/knowledge, but that’s part of the idea, study new things along the adventure. Sometimes I challenge myself with that kind of things, just to prove it’s doable and I can do it. The icon is nice benefit but it’s about the challenge, the educational experience and the adventure.
You might find it really unnecessary, specially because “green robot” feature is disabled by default and considering all the trouble I went through, but it’s really not about the icon. The only problem, I don’t own android enabled phone, and even if I did, I want that icon appearing even when I’m not connected through it. It might not be the best thing for android users’ privacy, but other than that I think it’s pretty cool, and I want this icon too! If enabled, it turns the bubbles next to your chat buddies in Google Talk, into cute android robots, for buddies connected via android device.
On last November, Google Labs released cool feature, called “Green robot icon”.
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