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The first April Fool's Day casualty is in: Gmail's “Mic Drop” feature cost people their jobs [UPDATE]

Not all April Fool's Day jokes are entirely well thought out. Take Gmail's Mic Drop feature, which actually cost some people their jobs before the joke feature was pulled from the email service.
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Published onApril 1, 2016

MinionMicDrop
Imgur

Update: Google apologized soon after all the 'mic drop' issues, but the company is trying to stay transparent and has decided to provide yet another update, this time detailing the issue in more depth. The Search Giant is disclosing where they made mistakes, how they could have fixed them and more.

  • We should have asked you before turning on the feature, and it should have included a confirmation before sending.
  • We didn't anticipate accidental clicks: "Send + Mic Drop" was too close to other send buttons ("Send" as well as "Send & Archive"), which caused confusion. 
  • And yes there was a bug. It was rare, but possible to press the regular "Send" button and still Mic Drop if you did the following: 
    • Opened a new compose window
    • Pressed the “Send & Mic Drop” button with no recipients and saw error message
    • Edited the message by adding message recipient(s)
    • Pressed the regular send button.

     

    April 1st is a great day for pranking, hoodwinking and otherwise pulling the wool over people’s eyes. But in the rush to make a truly memorable and catchy April Fool’s Day joke, things can occasionally get out of hand. So it was with this year’s first April’s Fool’s Day casualty: Gmail’s Mic Drop feature, which got so out of hand it had already cost some people their jobs before the feature was pulled.

    Roundup: good, bad, and ugly April Fools’ Day jokes
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    In case you missed it, Mic Drop replaced the Send and Archive button at the bottom of a Gmail message with Send and Mic Drop. If you clicked that button, Gmail would insert a funny Minions GIF and send the email, permanently archiving and muting the thread in the process.

    Gmail Mic Drop_Send

    Because of it’s placement where a regularly used button usually lives, many Gmail users didn’t pay close enough attention and fired off emails using Mic Drop by accident. Hilarity ensued as planned, but some unlucky Gmailers sent Mic Drop emails to very inappropriate people. Like prayer groups, potential employers and even current bosses. Well, recently current bosses, but now ex-bosses.

    Several Gmail users hit the Gmail product forums to ask how to undo or reverse a Mic Drop email, and others went there simply to vent. Potential interviews were missed out on, accusations of unprofessional behavior were made and in at least a couple of instances, jobs were lost.

    Mic Drop job lost

    The Gmail team pulled the feature after it had been available for less than half a day, and less than half an hour on the West Coast, claiming they had inadvertently pranked themselves with a bad joke. While Gmail apologized for the calamity that ensued, passing it off as “a bug” isn’t a great way to stand up and take it on the chin. We’re sure to hear more out of this story, unless we find out it was all part of an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke itself…

    Did you use Mic Drop? Funny idea or bad joke?

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