Google attempted to prank its Gmail users for April Fools Day this year, but it seems like it created more tears than laughs.
On Thursday, a new “send + mic drop” button appeared next to the “send” button in Gmail. The “new” feature gave users the option to add a GIF of a minion dropping a microphone to emails.
The new feature seemed like a great idea, depending on the subject.
Google received a number of complaints from people who accidentally pressed the “send and mic drop” on important messages. One user said he lost his job after he sent a “mic drop” in a email to his boss.
Thanks to Mic Drop I just lost my job. I am a writer and had a deadline to meet. I sent my articles to my boss and never heard back from her. I inadvertently sent the email using the “Mic Drop” send button.There were corrections that needed to be made on my articles and I never received her replies. My boss took offense to the Mic Drop animation and assumed that I didn’t reply to her because I thought her input was petty (hence the Mic Drop). I just woke up to a very angry voicemail from her which is how I found out about this “hilarious” prank.
People also struggled to find a way to undo the mic drop and turn off the feature. People created threads in the Gmail help forum looking to solve the mistake they just made.
“DROP THE MIC DROP GOOGLE. IT’S RIGHT NEXT TO THE SEND BUTTON! I accidentally just hit it on an important work email. NOT COOL!!!!” one user wrote.
“HOW DO I REMOVE NEW “drop mic” BUTTON – I Really dont want it next to my main send button…… really don’t want it!!!!! PLEASE HELP!!” another wrote.
But it seems like the damage has already been done.
Google finally removed the button Friday morning and apologized.
“Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. 😟 Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Google has been playing April Fools jokes for years, but this time, it pranked itself.
