April Fools’ Day: A day when no one – or website – can be trusted.
But what happens when a website tries to launch a gag feature and fails spectacularly? If you’re Gmail, you laugh at yourself and move on.
That’s exactly what the Google-owned email server did on its official blog Thursday night.
For those of you who missed it, Gmail launched its new “Mic Drop” feature on April Fools’ eve.
The feature promised to allow users to send a final email within a group thread, then remove you and hide any messages that might follow.
“Like those heated threads at work, when everyone’s wrong except you (obviously). Or those times when someone’s seeking group approval, but your opinion is the only one that matters (amirite?). Or maybe you just nailed it, and there’s nothing more to say (bam),” Gmail said on its official blog.
But unfortunately the company said a bug “caused more headaches than laughs,” forcing the feature to be turned off.
Though Gmail had blamed the frustration on a bug, many users had taken to the company’s public forum to voice concerns and outright anger over the placement of the Mic Drop button next to the actual send button.
“So I’ve been going back with a potential employer all week and last night sent a critical follow up email and accidentally clicked ‘Send + Mic Drop.’ Not only am I mortified of the mistake, but this could potentially cost me my dream job…This was a horrible, horrible idea with potentially irreparable damages for me…” one user claimed in the forum.
As it turns out, the joke’s on Gmail this April Fools’ Day.
