Pushing people’s buttons! Amid serious backlash, Google has disabled their disastrous “mic drop” April Fools’ joke button that added a GIF animation of a Minion to emails and muted all replies thereafter.
“Today, Gmail is making it easier to have the last word on any email with Mic Drop. Simply reply to any email using the new ‘Send + Mic Drop’ button. Everyone will get your message, but that’s the last you’ll ever hear about it. Yes, even if folks try to respond, you won’t see it,” the company wrote on their official Gmail blog of the April 1 feature.
Unfortunately, the tech giant placed the “mic drop” button right next to the regular send button, and the two looked a little too similar. Many users inadvertently sent important messages with the animated movie character. People quickly took to social media and the official Google forums to complain and explain that the company’s 2016 prank was accidentally making people look unprofessional and even costing them their jobs.
“This mic drop is perhaps the most stupid thing you could possibly come up with. I have been interviewing with this company for 3 months now and mistakenly sent the email directly to guess who? The HR! Why would you do that? I so want this job,” user Abdus Salam wrote on the Google forum.
Another user, Allan Pashby, asked if Google would employ him after he lost his job due to the joke — he said he mistakenly clicked the “mic drop” and his boss took offense.
Due to the huge backlash, Google disabled the feature and issued an apology to angry users. “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’re still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page.”
