Google , April's Fools

photo credit: Oops. John T Takai/Shutterstock

April Fools’ jokes are normally a bit of harmless fun. But that doesn’t seem to have been the case for one of Google’s latest pranks.

The Internet giant is known for its numerous annual April Fools’ jokes, but one seems to have failed spectacularly this year. They decided to install a “drop mic” button on Gmail that would send recipients of the email an animated gif of a Minion character “dropping a mic,” ending the email thread and blocking any future emails in the chain.

Things seem to have taken a turn for the worse, though, as unaware users who clicked the button – next to the normal “send” button – found that what were supposed to be serious emails became mocking replies.

“Thanks to Mic Drop I just lost my job,” said one user on Google’s Gmail Help Forum. “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.

“I just woke up to a very angry voicemail from her which is how I found out about this ‘hilarious’ prank.”

The orange button appeared next to the regular blue "send" button. Google

Other users reported similarly awkward instances, where what should have been professional emails were anything but. Google, realizing their error, has now removed the “drop mic” button from Google.

“Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year,” they wrote in a blog post. “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.”

It just goes to show that, while April Fools’ is normally all fun and games, things can occasionally not go to plan. Let’s just hope no one has spent the last few decades trying in vain to grow spaghetti trees.

*drops mic*

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