As we approach Google I/O 2016, I was engaged in my Thursday ritual of looking for something to throw back to. A Throwback Thursday, if you will. What I stumbled upon was too good to just link on our social networks for consumption - I was floored the moment I read it, and then overcome with a strange combination of the giggles and sadness. Back in 2011 at I/O, as they still do today, Google held "office hours" for developers. Artem was there for AP that year, and he used some of his time asking about things that you, our readers, submitted after a call for questions.

Now, developer office hours are, ostensibly, for developers wanting to learn more about Google products and get technical advice from core Google developers. We might have fudged the proscribed purpose of this time to ask questions that were, well, strictly self-serving to us - and you! But we did get answers. When I found our Q&A post, one of the answers a core Android developer gave to a question was simply too good to pass up.

App gifting has been a hugely requested feature on Android since basically ever, and way back in 2011, one of you asked when or if app gifting a la Apple's redemption codes were coming to the Android Market (now the Play Store). Surprisingly, an Android developer answered this question. The paraphrase is that it wasn't coming in the next month (at the time we asked), but that it was "definitely on the list" of things that were being worked on. Five. Years. Ago.

Just let that one sink in. We also asked about gift cards, which received a response of "we're working on it." That one only took a little over a year to materialize. Check out the original post - there are some other real gems in there, like Google's high hopes for the not-clear-if-it-ever-actually-existed Android Alliance.

In unrelated news: Google I/O 2016 is next week! We're excited.