What Is The Annihilation Combo On A Chromebook?

You may have heard the phrase "the kids are alright," but the latest viral Chromebook prank on TikTok may leave you questioning just how 'alright' they really are. Dubbed the "Annihilation Combo," this challenge started making the rounds on TikTok in April 2025. Instead of customizing their Chromebooks, these students came up with a creative and, some would argue, chaotic way to play a digital joke on their classmates.

As dramatic and eyebrow-raising as the name might sound, the so-called combo isn't a hack or dangerous exploit; it just involves typing a sequence of built-in keyboard shortcuts to temporarily distort how the Chromebook display looks and behaves. The kids pulling this prank have a simple goal: change a classmate or friend's Chromebook settings to make their screen appear upside down, zoomed in, or completely unusable until they figure out how to fix it. Some of the TikTok videos showing how to do the combo are over the top, using exaggerated effects for comedic shock value.

You might see rumors that the Annihilation Combo can overheat or even destroy the device. All of that's untrue. The Annihilation Combo won't hurt the Chromebook or make it work harder than it's supposed to. It's entirely software-based and easily reversible. What it comes down to is some students using tech-related mischief to get a few laughs, and it's become popular because of how easy it is to pull it off.

Watching a few videos of the Annihilation Combo on TikTok might be enough to convince you that it's an official feature or recognized sequence in Chrome OS. While Chrome OS has quite a few hidden features, you can rest assured, this isn't one of them. It's just a made-up name for a prank that strings together multiple display-altering shortcuts to create on-screen chaos. A few of the most popular shortcuts include Ctrl + Search + M to open a magnified window, Ctrl + Shift + Refresh to rotate the screen 90 degrees, and Ctrl + + or – to zoom in or out. Another crowd favorite is Search + L, which instantly locks the screen.

While these keyboard shortcuts normally simplify finding items on your Chromebook screen by zooming in or magnifying it, when used in rapid succession, they can distort the display to the point that it looks completely scrambled. Depending on the combination and order, the screen could end up upside down, zoomed so far in that the icons disappear, or layered with a floating magnifier.

If you're not familiar with these shortcuts, you might think the computer is broken or infected with a virus. However, that's not the case. These are all standard Chrome OS functions, and they can be reversed just as easily as they were activated. The term Annihilation Combo is just an online exaggeration. The Chromebook isn't damaged, just made to look broken until someone resets the display settings.

We can thank TikTok for this latest schoolyard digital trend. Two Tiktok creators helped launch this prank into viral territory after they posted videos of their own Chromebook displays spinning, zooming, and glitching out. As with many things on TikTok, the trend quickly gained traction among students, especially in classrooms where Chromebooks are widely used and easy to access. While many TikTok users worry about shadow banning on the platform, the reach of these videos suggests that Annihilation Combo videos haven't been affected.

A big part of why the trend has caught on is how simple it is to pull off. Students don't need to know how to code or have any technical know-how to get it to work. All they need to do is tap the shortcut keys quickly, something that just about anyone can replicate. Still, there's a lot of misinformation about the trend, with some questioning whether the combo will cause Chromebooks to overheat, crash permanently, or explode. These claims are completely false. All the Annihilation Combo really does is trigger existing Chrome OS features, just like adjusting your settings manually.