New Delhi: A button Google introduced in Gmail to mark the April Fool’s Day as a joke backfired as users complained that it caused more headaches than laughs for people at work.
The prank button appeared beside Gmail’s normal send button and allowed users to shut down an email thread by sending a GIF of a Minion dropping a microphone.
However, a flurry of complaints about the button appeared on Google’s forums. The firm has since withdrawn the feature and apologised, the BBC reported.
A mic drop is a popular meme in which someone makes a conclusive statement or rebuttal before dropping a microphone and walking off.
Google later issued a statement apologising for the gaffe saying it pranked itself.
“It looks like we pranked ourselves this year,” Google said in a statement.
“Due to a bug, the MicDrop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry,” it added.
Google was not immediately able to clarify details of the bug, the report said. The button was not enabled on the Gmail accounts of enterprise business customers.
Users’ responses ranged from genuine to outright hilarious.
“Thanks to MicDrop I just lost my job,” claimed one user on Google’s product forums.
“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 MicDrop send button,” the user wrote.
Another complained that they had been having interviews for a job with a company for three months and then accidentally sent a mic drop email to the HR department.
And a third said that they had sent an “important email to 30 recipients”.
However, users had been informed of the button and what it would do via a message in Gmail when it first appeared.
(With agencies)
