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Google 'mic drop' Gmail joke for April Fools' day backfires

• felipeerias 11y ago
  Google sabotaging their own product just for a few laughs is a great way of reminding people that they don't really care about providing any services other than selling ads. Also, what's the point of this prank when Gmail has a global audience? Only a minority of users will be aware that their tools might fail today because it's April Fools in the US.
  • SilkRoadie 11y ago
    Looks to me like there was a disconnect between what marketing wanted and what was delivered. Marketing saw this idea as a bit of fun, something that would create some good press and be playful. Unfortunately the implementation was terrible, it confused users and lead people trying to seriously use the product to send silly pictures around. Saying they don't care about the product because of this is silly. So many people use it because it is one of the best email applications around. A botched bit of fun doesn't mean the product is going to shit.
• yoz-y 11y ago
  I really do not like what Google did here. If anything, they have introduced unnecessary code to an already complex application that people actually use. More code means more bugs. They should take Microsofts 'no more easter eggs' approach and stop dicking around.
  • fixermark 11y ago
    Writing software is the company's function. "More code means more bugs" implies there is no opportunity or freedom for improvement. (Also, Microsoft took a 'no more easter eggs' approach? Wow, I didn't know. That's.... Well, if I want to go program somewhere with no personal freedom or trust from management, I know where I can go!).
    • yoz-y 11y ago
      > "More code means more bugs" implies there is no opportunity or freedom for improvement. This twists a bit the meaning of what I have said. This particular feature is made to be throw-away and is useless. Programmers should strive to make their code as simple as possible while keeping all of the _necessary_ features of the software. This feature was not necessary. As for the Microsoft policy here is the source: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/why-no-easter-eggs/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/larryosterman/2005/10/21/wh... Personally I would hope that the programmers' personal freedom is not expressed in easter eggs in mission critical software
• ff10 11y ago
  If somebody told me it's meta April fools day this year I would believe it.
• wanda 11y ago
  [insensitive/ignorant comment withdrawn]
  • duiker101 11y ago
    Well it's not just a matter of using it for work, anyone might have to send professional emails, be it a job hunter or a small store owner or a thousand of other situations. I can see the fun in the button but I guess that if I did send it by mistake in a professional conversation I too would be dying inside, especially if there's a job or my reputation on the line.
  • brandmeyer 11y ago
    > more people use GMail professionally I think email is /primarily/ used as a professional communication tool today. Casual and personal uses of email have been largely replaced by social media.
  • hudell 11y ago
    People didn't have to see the new button to trigger it. Some simply use keyboard shortcuts. In my case, Ctrl+Enter triggers the modified button.
• Kequc 11y ago
  The most egregious part of this April fools joke is the use of minions. The only thing I am capable of thinking of when I see a minion is the absolute most common soccer mom in the world interacting with the 'internet'. It is the last thing I want to see in an email, business or personal. Let alone at the top of an email. Let alone at the top of an email I cannot respond to. If I can't respond to it, I don't want to see whatever it was no matter what it was. Not a good idea, minions aren't funny. If Google hadn't screwed with the standard behaviour of their email product it's still not a good idea.
  • calgoo 11y ago
    Talk for yourself, minions are awesome! But yes, i agree that using them in professional emails might not be the best thing. Now, we could have a conversation about why someone is using private email accounts for professional purposes.
    • scrollaway 11y ago
      There's other settings than "professional" where a random gif like this might not be appreciated.
  • Asparagirl 11y ago
    Seriously, God forbid there be any soccer mom on the Internet, certainly not here on HN, and definitely not in this thread or anything. ಠ_ಠ
    • Kequc 11y ago
      Don't hate the hater.
  • catwithribbon 11y ago
    Not a good idea, minions aren't funny I had fun once. It was awful!
  • soundwave106 11y ago
    The only flag raised with me regarding using a minion, is that minions are copyrighted. It makes me wonder if they got clearance from Universal / Illumination before publishing this prank. (If not, I really doubt Universal / Illumination would be too happy with headlines today.)
• deanCommie 11y ago
  "Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs." It wasn't a bug it was a feature. Maybe I'm too much of an engineer but I HATE when PM's/managers/PR representatives just classify all unexpected and undesired behaviour as "bugs". A "bug" implies I made a mistake. I didn't make a mistake. I developed EXACTLY what you told me, after numerous rounds of confirmation and feedback loops. It's not a bug if it's doing exactly what it was supposed to.
  • stvswn 11y ago
    You don't have any responsibility for what you build? Maybe it's on you, too. (As a PM, I HATE when engineers are full of confirmations and feedback loops but cop the 'not my fault, I just build exactly what you tell me' attitude the moment there's something to fix)
    • teaneedz 11y ago
      The PM is responsible for the requirements. If my PRD fails to be explicit or is not involved in the QA process, the PM needs to take ownership. Yes, everyone is responsible for the UX, but the PM especially.
    • deanCommie 11y ago
      Yeah well, when I find a bug I go to my PM and I say "Dude, I messed up. Here's the problem. Here's what you need to tell the customers to do/not do. Here's what i need to fix it." When there's a problem with requirements and the users are screaming, and the system isn't doing what they want (but exactly what they built), the PM comes to me and says "We fucked up. You need to drop everything and fix this right away." This has been the case with almost every PM I've ever worked with.
  • voiper1 11y ago
    In the pop-out compose, it _replaced_ the send&archive. In the regular compose/reply/forward, it added another button to the side. I'm thinking the "bug" is that in the pop-out, it replaced the send&archive, so people _inadvertently_ clicked it out of muscle memory.
• atwebb 11y ago
  The two autoplaying ads on the site may be worse than the mic-drop feature. I definitely got a layover notice telling me about it last night around 8PM CST. >to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. I did enjoy the it's a feature/bug dual language though.
  • coldpie 11y ago
    > The two autoplaying ads on the site may be worse than the mic-drop feature. There is a fix available for this issue: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#installation https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#installation
• M4v3R 11y ago
  <obligatory rant about April Fools day> April Fools is such a collective waste of time. Not only does it lower productivity of many people for a day, some "pranks" actually take days to prepare. I imagine that producing SnoopaVision for Youtube [1] wasn't exactly cheap. [1] https://www.youtube.com/snoopavision https://www.youtube.com/snoopavision
  • underyx 11y ago
    Yes, just like Christmas, New Years' Eve, and the rest.
• jetcata 11y ago
  I sent an accidental mic drop email as a response to an important conversation I was having regarding my career. Thanks a lot google.
  • jetcata 11y ago
    I'm really angry that they could have seen this as anything but a dangerous idea. Strange sense of humour they have. I guess when you work at Google you don't need to worry so much about job hunting or career stuff. They are really out of touch.
  • obj-g 11y ago
    And, what, you had to send a short explanation and then both sides moved on?
    • Artistry121 11y ago
      There are plenty of news articles on it now. Sending one of those and an apology should solve almost any problems.
  • joaorj 11y ago
    Maybe we can use this comment as a place to give our best guesses for to the percentage of liars on the internet. How many of the people claiming to have clicked a button few minutes / hours after it was out and having spectacular irreversible consequences to their lives is just a phony? I would say between 40% and 90%, but don't know better than that.
  • jason46 11y ago
    Reply to a previous message in the chain?
  • raisedbyninjas 11y ago
    Send a follow-up email with a brief explanation and a link to this article. If your employer/benefactor/whatever still insists on feeling slighted then you may want to reconsider if you want business relationship with them.
• pmontra 11y ago
  Was it real or it's a meta joke?
  • millzlane 11y ago
    The people want to know! We don't have time for this.
• throw_away131 11y ago
  Stuff like this makes me consider less about ever applying to Google. idk, they've got smart people at their company, but there seems to be an underlying disconnect with real everyday users. I think autistic would be too harsh to describe their collective mindset...
  • jhall1468 11y ago
    Collectively autistic? Their real everyday users amount in the millions. But please give us more insight using highly inappropriate analogies.
    • ocdtrekkie 11y ago
      They have real every day users, but Google doesn't understand those users. Many Googlers eat at Google, play at Google, and most of their friends are other Googlers. You'll notice Google has almost no comprehension of real people's lives. Google designers have never had to do work on a 1024x768 screen at the office. Googlers live in a bubble where technology is perfect, which is why they seem to believe technology can solve a lot of human issues much easier than they actually can. For them, it's possible.
      • awesomerobot 11y ago
        I think this is a little hyperbolic but not too much. I'd expect a similar mindset and internal use of G+ is a large reason it wasn't scrapped a year ago.
      • xbmcuser 11y ago
        Google understands users better than you think. They mine millions of interactions to see what people are doing so understand what is liked and not liked. This prank was not a data driven so back fired.
        • ocdtrekkie 11y ago
          Google has automated this process. They don't do nearly enough actual interaction with actual users about problems. This is actually an example of what I'm talking about. Where they assume an automated data collector is more valuable than even just sitting down with one person and watching them use the website.
• mbrownnyc 11y ago
  Maybe the Gmail team should realize we're all not children.
  • joshmanders 11y ago
    Maybe you should pay attention to what buttons you click.
    • cytzol 11y ago
      Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? This isn't a case of a user ignoring an important dialog box then wondering why their computer doesn't work anymore; the button just suddenly started to do something different, which is terrible user interface design. To put it another way, how am I supposed to get anything done when I'm spending all my time making sure the interface doesn't change beneath my feet?
      • joshmanders 11y ago
        > Or maybe the buttons I click shouldn't suddenly change without warning? From what I seen, the buttons didn't change, send has always been where it was, just another one was added.
        • cytzol 11y ago
          > From what I seen, the buttons didn't change It replaced the Send And Archive button that lives next to Send. (Adding a new one is still a bad idea, imho, but would have been borderline forgivable)
          • raverbashing 11y ago
            Mine just says "Send", I don't remember seeing a "Send and Archive" button
            • 11y ago
• obj-g 11y ago
  Wow, what a bunch of babies. I'm sorry, I just don't see how sending a "mic drop" email could ruin so many lives in just a few hours. It's not like it sent some NSFW gif or random insults or something. Accidentally sent one? Just send a new email to the person with a link to an article about it and say, oops, I got pranked, sorry?
  • mbil 11y ago
    I agree completely. The prank may not have been funny, but are we so tightly wound that this upsets us?
    • vwcx 11y ago
      Is it really this hard to understand the issue here? How long have we spent collectively explaining very basic functionality of systems to the elderly, to our parents, friends, etc? Not hard to see why something like this would create unintended consequences of an important nature: https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715752594551869440 https://twitter.com/waxpancake/status/715752594551869440
    • scrollaway 11y ago
      Jesus, have some empathy. This doesn't upset me. This doesn't upset you. This doesn't upset hundreds of thousands of people and as unfunny as this is, I'm sure many are laughing about it. However, it can upset some people. Some people who would mistakenly click the button because, god forbid, they forgot not to use the internet at all on April 1st, and that mistake would appear in an extremely important conversation. And that mistake would appear during career discussions. And that mistake would get someone not hired, or fired, or whatever. You guys want to complain, talk about how they should "look harder", how they should "take responsibility" and "own up to their mistakes", how they should "be happy not to work somewhere people are so uptight"? Have some fucking empathy. I'd wager the majority of HN is well off, or well off enough that they don't have to worry about the rent or their water bill. But I'd like to see some of the people here struggling to make ends meet. Maybe you won't be so sociopathic about the potential for serious harm. This thread makes me sick.
• 15charlimit 11y ago
  TL;DR "people are careless and stupid, use a new feature on important messages without checking to see what it does first, then whine about it when they get burned" The modern world is pathetic.
  • cytzol 11y ago
    It's important to avoid the thought-terminating cliche "Oh, it was just human error" and look at the problems in the UI that cause the errors in the first place. If the ignition in your car was one day replaced by an ejector seat, and you hit it without thinking because that's what you do every day, I doubt you'd be placing the blame on yourself.
    • 15charlimit 11y ago
      Given that a car is a dangerous piece of machinery that could quite easily kill myself and people around me if it malfunctions, yes I do give it a once-over every time I get into it throughout the day, which includes the interior controls. Getting back on topic, given historical data, it's foolish to not expect something to happen/change on April 1st, especially on google products. So yes, I place the blame on the users.
      • random_rr 11y ago
        @ShitHNSays
• mxuribe 11y ago
  Not sure if this prank/feature appeared on google's "For Work" (paid offering), but if it did, that would be sucky. However on the free gmail side of things - not to be a jerk about this - but perhaps this should remind users that they are not the real customers for google...and that free platforms like this do in fact come with baggage. I'm not saying google intentionally meant to screw over their users (I totally get this was all meant in jest). But what incentive does google have other than saying "Oops, sorry". Any expectations for compensation i think are silly; and many users forget that. Does it suck that someone lost their job because of this? Hellz yeah, no doubt about that! But can we really expect google to do anything else except shut down this prank even if only after-the-fact? Again, it sucks, but this should serve to show/remind some of those users that these free platforms are not like your local electric/water utility, and should not be fully depended upon, certainly not for such important things as jobs, etc.
  • mikemac 11y ago
    The company administrator for paid accounts would need to enable it.
  • dpina 11y ago
    It wasn't there, at least not by default. We use google for Work gmail and no one in the company saw the button.
  • DanBC 11y ago
    https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG3G4g https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG... > Note that if you’re a Google Apps business, education or government user this feature was never turned on.
• insulanian 11y ago
  I think this article itself is an April fools joke.
  • Tenhundfeld 11y ago
    I thought so too, at first, but it's getting a lot of seemingly-real coverage. http://time.com/4278950/april-fools-gmail-mic-drop/ http://time.com/4278950/april-fools-gmail-mic-drop/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/01/google-mic-drop/ http://fortune.com/2016/04/01/google-mic-drop/ http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/1/11344044/google-gmail-mic-drop-button-april-fool http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/1/11344044/google-gmail-mic-d... Now, they could be in on the joke and/or all just picking up the original story and parroting it without any fact checking. I'm still hoping the real prank here was getting the media to cover a fake prank, but I'm becoming less sure of my instincts.
    • bmj 11y ago
      It's also worth noting that I saw the button in my GMail interface early this morning (as well as the little pop-up explaining it), and now, a few hours later, that button is gone, and it is still very much 1 April. I would think if the backlash was just part of the joke, the button would still be there.
      • Tenhundfeld 11y ago
        Yeah, okay, that sounds pretty conclusive. When I replied, I hadn't yet seen a non-jokey-sounding report of a real person saying they'd experienced it. That sucks – both because the apparent negative impact on real people's lives and because I was really hoping it was an elaborate prank on the media.
    • nommm-nommm 11y ago
      Can confirm it's not a joke. I have the button in my gmail still (hasn't gone away for me)
  • therealmarv 11y ago
    I also want to know if this thing really got rolled out or not. I've never seen it on my Gmail.
• thrillgore 11y ago
  I believe we have all witnessed the end of April Fools Day jokes at Google.
  • meggar 11y ago
    I hope not. I for one thought it was pretty cool. Maybe "opt in to april fools jokes" can be a gmail setting or something.
  • tomjen3 11y ago
    I sincerely hope so. Every single company has to be April Fools and they are never cute or funny. Worst. Holiday. Ever.
    • dipnuggetron 11y ago
      Predictably terrible and unfunny.
• brickmort 11y ago
  what a terrible idea for a prank. I can't believe this made it through all channels and got the OK.
• bryanrasmussen 11y ago
  I'm not seeing this in my UI, is it an independent april fool's joke here? ah I see it's supposedly been taken down, now I don't know if it actually ever existed.
  • deadcast 11y ago
    I'm starting to wonder if the whole thing was just faked. That would be good.
• huphtur 11y ago
  Annual reminder: the development effort spent adding an animated minion GIF to Gmail could have kept Google Reader running all year source: https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/715820699215138817 https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/715820699215138817
  • Godel_unicode 11y ago
    Annual response: no it couldn't have. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Google-cancel-Reader-rather-than-making-it-a-paid-service https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Google-cancel-Reader-rather-th...
    • JohnTHaller 11y ago
      Short version: Google couldn't keep Reader going because it would take money to get it working on the new Google+ infrastructure that failed spectacularly. Fun fact: Google+ also royally broke the Google contacts feature in Gmail and it still hasn't quite recovered, meaning you can't really trust it when you sync it to other things. I wound up with 2 or 3 duplicates of contacts, some linked to Google+ profiles and some not, that sometimes had invisible connections to each other. They wouldn't merge correctly. Sometimes when you deleted one of them, more than one would disappear and you'd lose everything that was in that contact. They appear to be trying to remedy with this with the new Contacts web app that's in beta.
      • ddispaltro 11y ago
        This is my single biggest problem with the whole g+ thing. Very frustrating, never mess with contacts.
        • philovivero 11y ago
          Oh. Eye-opener. Is this why in the past year or two random contacts are doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and I can't merge them, and sometimes one app (like Hangouts/messaging) won't know a phone number is attached to a contact while another (the phone app) will, etc? The contacts in Android seem totally fubar lately. Knowing it's due to the G+ POS clears things up a bit.
• raverbashing 11y ago
  Typical Google. Sending UX down the drain in a whim Apparently none of their "interviewed to death" workers noticed the potential ways this could backfire
  • reitanqild 11y ago
    > Typical Google. Sending UX down the drain in a whim While doesn't seem like their brightest idea I still miss the old whimsy Google. > Apparently none of their "interviewed to death" workers noticed the potential ways this could backfire This is IMO the really interesting part but I guess there is a strong groupthink culture there.
    • awesomerobot 11y ago
      I think the old whimsy Google would think adding a minion gif to emails was a completely lazy and boring idea.
      • pessimizer 11y ago
        As the company has become a generic conglomerate, its sense of humor has been lost.
      • alanh 11y ago
        Yeah. Making Google Maps for the moon (with cheese at the maximum zoom level) was a combination of interesting and funny in a way that wasn’t absolutely contemptuous of the user
    • alanh 11y ago
      “I’m just worried that someone might —” “Shut up Kris, you’re not being Googley.”
  • make3 11y ago
    perhaps it was obvious to everyone already, but i'm more and more beginning to feel that the company should place higher cultural value in UX, other than just quality programming
• mxuribe 11y ago
  Just to think how much control google (or any other operator of free platform/service) has over the content of any messages pumped through their platform: Instead of google inserting that minion GIF, what if they simply added "...Not" to the end of every email? Fictional example #1: Hi everyone, We're having a baby!...Not (Then google appends "...Not" to the end.) Fictional example #2: Hi everyone, Grandma passed away...Not Fictional example #3: Hi everyone, We're moving away to city/state/country XYZ!...Not Fictional example #4: Hi everyone, We're getting a divorce!...Not Encrypted messaging or not, that's a lot of control to have (by a provider) over what users send out. Or maybe i'm thinking too pessimistically?
  • f_allwein 11y ago
    good idea for Google's next year's April Fools joke...Not
  • donatj 11y ago
    I really hope if your grandma passes away you get a phone call. Maybe I am old fashioned.
    • akgerber 11y ago
      I was one of around 30 grandchildren of my grandma's 12 children. I heard about her death via email— it would have been impractical to share the news otherwise, or to ask her caretakers to make 50 or even 12 calls while dealing with all the exigencies of the funeral.
      • donatj 11y ago
        Calling trees. That's the way we did it years ago.
        • bronson 11y ago
          I'd rather receive an email from the source than a call from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone that grandma is probably dead. And they take a ton of work to organize.
• gotrythis 11y ago
  I think this article is a joke, making it a really good April fools joke. This is a real Google style April fools joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSZPNwZex9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSZPNwZex9s
• nhumrich 11y ago
  Seriously? If this isn't just a meta joke, who is dumb enough to write serious emails on April 1...
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• reboog711 11y ago
  If I try some time-math: The article posted to a UK site with a byline that says "Posted 43 minutes ago". At the time of writing this comment; 43 minutes was ~2pm in the UK, give or take a few minutes. The article also has an update on 11:50. That update either came ~2 hours before the article was posted, or 8-9 hours in the future. So, I'm going to guess the whole article is fake.
  • callahad 11y ago
    Google did roll this out: https://gmail.googleblog.com/2016/03/introducing-gmail-mic-drop.html https://gmail.googleblog.com/2016/03/introducing-gmail-mic-d...
  • Ntrails 11y ago
    >So, I'm going to guess the whole article is fake. Honestly this is the best April Fools I've seen on the internet in years because I've no idea whether the mic drop feature existed or not. The uncertainty in whether it's real owns
    • David 11y ago
      The mic drop feature did exist; I had the pleasure of actively not clicking it on an email I sent last night.
      • Ntrails 11y ago
        I'd like to believe you, but how can I trust anything I read on the internet today?
  • nols 11y ago
    It was launched in Australia, presumably that time is ACT which sort of makes sense as an update while they were writing the article.
  • the_af 11y ago
    No, it's true. I noticed the Drop the Mic thing last night, and ignored because it was late and I was tired, and I didn't understand what the hell it was. I actually thought it was some kind of Whatsapp-like "send voice message", done with an extremely ugly Minion emoticon.
• CoinX4 11y ago
  Congratulations Google, you played yourself.
• littletinman 11y ago
  Anyone else thought about the fact that now that they have removed this feature, they have put the "job death" sentence on those that accidentally used it and would have had a reasonable explanation to their boss? "Look, this button is right here and I thought it was send." Now a non-technical boss will just assume that person is lying because no button is in gmail anymore. Thanks Google. Stay Classy.
  • hudell 11y ago
    Well, there's plenty of references to this on the internet already.
• Rudism 11y ago
  Did the button actually operate as advertised? It wouldn't surprise me if it did nothing, and the real April fools joke were planted fake outrage "I got fired over this!" tweets.
  • mcphage 11y ago
    It inserted an animation of a minion dropping a mic into your email. You can see it in screen grabs.
• gibbitz 11y ago
  Don't like ads? Didn't like this prank? Don't like it when the UI changes? Use an email client. Like a boss.
  • randommodnar 11y ago
    There are ads in Gmail?
    • zeveb 11y ago
      There are ads on the Internet? Thank you, AdBlock Plus & µBlock: you've changed my life for the better.
    • criddell 11y ago
      For most users, yes. If you have an educational account or pay for Google Apps, then no.
  • tmptmp 11y ago
    This is a good advice, at least for the geeks and even for the semi-geeks. I use mutt and never got stung like this. But mutt may not be much suitable for most users. Any other good clients (thunderbird) can do.
  • erroneousfunk 11y ago
    Email clients can change their interface or fuck with your mail in other ways. They may not do it on a "one day only" basis, but they can certainly introduce other problems.
    • darkclarity 11y ago
      Bear in mind that the web based interface offered by email services is an email client, which you have no control over.
  • criddell 11y ago
    What email client would you recommend? I've been stuck in Thunderbird because I require PGP/GPG, but I really hate it. Do you have a favorite client? I really do like Google's Inbox, but the lack of PGP is a blocker for me.
• donatj 11y ago
  Let's just say for the sake of argument that this were a serious new feature and not an April 1 joke. Like a fast reply or something that could cause similar outcomes. Are they allowed to rearrange the buttons then? Or should they never change the UI in fear that users might bump the wrong button due to muscle memory.
• gumby 11y ago
  "Please return all your mail to Google for a full refund." It's a free product...you got what you paid for!
  • mcphage 11y ago
    I don't know if it also showed up for Google for Domains / Google Business / whatever they're calling it now, but there are people who pay for Gmail.
• vaibhavkul 11y ago
  Did anyone take a screenshot of the Mic Drop button before it was removed? There are GIFs showing the sent email with the minion, but could find any showing the /button/ in action.
  • tyingq 11y ago
    http://i.imgur.com/5gBZVOh.png http://i.imgur.com/5gBZVOh.png Seems obvious this was a bad idea. Edit: Google's animated gif showing the whole UI: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GYnAKaZY9v4/Vv2RkU5hIcI/AAAAAAAAB4w/78RP9KC9uZYL8c93kWtkZV50yfGH1gipg/s1600/Gmail%2BMic%2BDrop_Send.gif https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GYnAKaZY9v4/Vv2RkU5hIcI/AAAAAAAAB... I would guess they missed the idea that people use muscle memory to close irritating pop-ups without trying to figure out why it's there, or what it relates to. They are then left with 2 send buttons, one with a now ambiguous microphone icon.
    • fixermark 11y ago
      It would be cool if people took this as a lesson to not close dialogs without reading them. That's, of course, not what's going to happen.
      • nommm-nommm 11y ago
        It would be cool if websites didn't pop up dialogs for stupid reasons. 90% of dialogs that appear without user interaction are intrusive and unnecessary so users get used to closing them. Would you like to take a survey?, download our mobile app?, full screen ads, and my favorite - "our site has changed dramatically, here's a tutorial."
      • tyingq 11y ago
        Unfortunately, the popup Google chose to use looks like an advertisement. The red "new" banner and animated gif. They might have reacted differently to an actual dialog at first click that says "This will inject an image into your outbound email, and mute the conversation. Continue?" (with the default choice set to "NO".
• awesomerobot 11y ago
  Really an immature oversight not just in the tone, but in the actual understanding of the product. It's a utility for most users. What if AT&T just played a fart sound in the middle of a call if you hit a button on your screen? Of course that would go wrong. How did they think this was any different? They're not just some startup anymore.
  • gameshot911 11y ago
    >What if AT&T just played a fart sound in the middle of a call if you hit a button on your screen? That's actually hilarious.
    • yrro 11y ago
      Not in the context of all conversations!
      • tripzilch 11y ago
        I'll grant that in the middle of a phone conversation with a doctor about flatulence, it'll just be neutral. But otherwise, I got nothing. And let me stop you before you reply "but what if it's terminal flatulence?" because you just answered your own question.
        • yrro 11y ago
          Picture receiving a phone call from the police in which you learn that your son and daughter had been killed in a vehicle collision. While you are collecting your thoughts, perhaps before you fully realise that your life has been changed forever, the silence is punctuated by a loud tphrrrphththpht. Hilarious.
• loudmax 11y ago
  I think the lesson here isn't so much about April Fools as it is about user interface design. Google put an orange warning on the button to let users know that the button would do something different, and people still clicked it out of habit. We users simply don't expect that buttons will suddenly change functionality. Google felt that the warnings they had in place were sufficient. Clearly they weren't.
  • tmptmp 11y ago
    What if tomorrow some fools at Google think it is okay to play April fools prank with their automated cars? or their robots? and the car/robot goes berserk due to that? This type of foolish pranks should backfire more strikingly. If they cannot treat their main (or at least one of the very important) business seriously, then they may face some very unpleasant things later.
    • Dylan16807 11y ago
      What if tomorrow some engineers at Google think it is okay to do a normal update to their automated cars? or their robots? and the car/robot goes berserk due to that?
      • tmptmp 11y ago
        I did not say that this is impossible. It seems you are confused between accidental bugs and deliberate pranks. So, to address your issue: 1) it would not be unreasonable to expect that the "normal update" to their cars/robots should have passed some serious and rigorous testing/verification and the business/physical impact on end-user experience must have been assessed before rolling the "normal" updates; 2) and a serious business entity will not allow any such deliberate/damaging prank to slip through such a process.
        • Dylan16807 11y ago
          > 1) it would not be unreasonable to expect that the "normal update" to their cars/robots should have passed some serious and rigorous testing/verification and the business/physical impact on end-user experience must have been assessed before rolling the "normal" updates; So your point here is that safety-critical updates need to be rigorously tested? I agree with that, but I don't see any connection to whether it's okay to have pranks. I'm not confusing bugs and pranks, my entire point is that they're quite separate. Your bug risk is there with or without pranks. So if you feel like adding a prank, go ahead, just subject it to the same safety testing. That they released a UI update that annoys people does not imply anything about their ability to do safety testing. > 2) and a serious business entity will not allow any such deliberate/damaging prank to slip through such a process. I'll split "deliberate/damaging" into multiple cases. Deliberate pranks: those are deliberate, they don't "slip through". Safety-related damages: these are important, and not what happened here. Non-safety-related damages: this getting through does not imply they have bad safey testing, so the comment about cars/robots going berserk is a non-sequitur.
• zkhalique 11y ago
  Is this an April Fools joke itself?
• an4rchy 11y ago
  I honestly thought this was an April fools article from the newspaper and the links would never lead back to Google. Would be crazy if it was another level deep of April Fools.
• jasonkostempski 11y ago
  Are we sure these stories aren't the actual joke? Did anyone here actually see this feature in person?
  • dgacmu 11y ago
    Yup. https://www.dropbox.com/s/28xcoithtls9wo5/Screenshot%202016-04-01%2007.52.35.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/28xcoithtls9wo5/Screenshot%202016-... (I thought it was kind of funny, FWIW, particularly when it hit a mailing list. :)
  • ptrincr 11y ago
    I seen it earlier, but I just assumed it was something about using your mic to record an email.... I wasn't really paying attention. It told you about the feature in a pop up ( I think) when you went to compose a new email and the button was there next to the send button when composing.
  • jboggan 11y ago
    Yes, we had great fun with it around the office and no careers were ruined. My manager rescheduled my 1-on-1 timeslot and used the mic drop to hilarious effect.
• akerro 11y ago
  >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." Soo... they again purposely broke the whole idea behind email?
  • on_and_off 11y ago
    they replaced the reply & archive button. I might be mistaken since I don't use it, but it sounds like its normal behavior.
    • detaro 11y ago
      No, it isn't. the button only moves the thread to the archive, hiding it from the inbox until another mail belonging to it arrives.
      • cbhl 11y ago
        It also mutes the conversation, which suppresses replies from showing up in Inbox.
        • detaro 11y ago
          The normal "reply and archive" button?
          • cbhl 11y ago
            The mic drop button mutes, whereas send and archive does not. Therefore the behavior of mic drop is not "normal".
            • detaro 11y ago
              That's what I said/tried to say. Not very clearly though, it seems.
• mnglkhn2 11y ago
  I think this is the actual April Fools' prank: the story about the failed prank. Nobody sane will approve a product feature such as this.
  • deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  • gdulli 11y ago
    You could say the same thing about the last redesigns to gmail and maps, but those were real too.
    • mnglkhn2 11y ago
      Weird thing to say, considering that this "feature" goes to alter the conversation. No matter what the UI changes other, the primary tenet is to not alter and obfuscate the conversation. So, from this point of view, they actually messed with the core feature of the app: sending and receiving emails/messages, without alteration to the message.
• kstenerud 11y ago
  Wow... I was absolutely sure that this backfire story WAS the April Fools' joke. It just seemed so farfetched. The animated gif I could understand, but actually blocking all future replies? That's where I figured that nobody would ever actually implement something so stupid and dangerous.
  • jug 11y ago
    Yes, it's the side effects and real world changes to outgoing mails that is just beyond stupid and uncharacteristically bad even for Google April Fool's jokes. I don't even understand how the mere idea could be approved. It's like if they got an intern to "come up with something fun".
• snackular 11y ago
  please make this an actual feature in labs. lose the gif and have it send an auto reply to all future responses indicating I am no longer reading the email thread. in the auto-reply have a link leading to how to use bcc
• protomyth 11y ago
  If your brogrammer idea means some poor sysadmin is going to get a bunch of panicked questions, then don't do the damn joke.
  • bluthru 11y ago
    Somehow I don't think Minions appeal to brogrammers.
    • protomyth 11y ago
      Its one of the most popular mic drop gifs, so it was probably easy to get.
  • 13thLetter 11y ago
    "Brogrammer"? Where did that come from?
    • protomyth 11y ago
      The general anger I'm feeling this morning over all the think-they-are-funny programmers / tech people who spread pain and suffering expecting everyone to knows its April 1st and they should expect things to work differently so they should ignore their muscle memory. I really cannot think of another term that would correctly fit. Beer swilling, hey watch me program this, juvenile foolishness.
• digitalneal 11y ago
  Ya just don't mess with peoples email.
• touchofevil 11y ago
  Wow, what an incredibly, obviously bad idea. I spotted this last night and immediately realized how this would go down. If you have 900 million users (as gmail does) and you add a button right next to the send button that also has the word "send" on it, you are going to have a significant numbers of users send emails using that button! AND it adds a gif AND it archives the email thread AND those features aren't explained when you hover over the button! I have a feeling the vast majority of gmail users don't know how to find their archived email threads, so those users will never see the replies to the email they sent. The gmail team was asleep at the wheel on this one.
  • deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  • smt88 11y ago
    > gmail team was asleep at the wheel on this one No. They intentionally drove off the road for fun and somehow didn't understand humans enough to realize that it would be really infuriating to some of their ~1 billion users. They did the same thing with their "Call your Dad today" calendar reminder and many other things. Google's product teams seem to be both deaf (help forums overflowing with "+1s" for simple fixes) and tone-deaf. This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore.
    • haukilup 11y ago
      > This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore. Why specifically mention Microsoft? Seems like you could have concluded you 'should' switch away from Google's ecosystem without coupling it to your desire to switch to Microsoft.
    • fuck_google 11y ago
      Google makes even Microsoft look good, doesn't it.
• chintan 11y ago
  Verified - this is true and still working for me. 1. You press "SEND+drop mic" button (note how close the buttons are: http://imgur.com/5gBZVOh http://imgur.com/5gBZVOh ) 2. It says message sent and archived: http://imgur.com/GpOhiLY http://imgur.com/GpOhiLY 3. Go to other recipient email, it contains attachment of mic drop image. http://imgur.com/Bs0iISe http://imgur.com/Bs0iISe 4. Reply and it doesn't show up in inbox because conversation was archived (only accessible from "All Mail")
  • hudell 11y ago
    Regular archived conversations go back to inbox everytime there's a new message.
    • jffry 11y ago
      Under the hood perhaps is it muting [1] the conversation in GMail? If you're part of a long message conversation that isn't relevant, you can mute the conversation to keep all future additions out of your inbox. [1] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en
  • muraiki 11y ago
    As a colorblind user I'm not quite sure what color the send+mic button is, but I'm drawn to it much more strongly than the normal send button. At the very least you'd think they would have had a pop-up confirmation message...
    • bronson 11y ago
      As a non-colorblind user, me too. The orange is a lot more vibrant and attractive than the blue and doesn't convey much of a "warning, something different" message. It doesn't seem like Google tested this on many real-world users before deploying...?
      • altotrees 11y ago
        This exactly. My eye was drawn to the orange button last night as I went to send an email to my professor. I nearly clicked it, not remembering the date. Luckily, I just thought it might be some new weird voice feature I must not understand...that was close.
• kzhahou 11y ago
  Fun side effect of long-running AJAX apps: even though Google disabled the feature, it will still be live for everyone who has a gmail window since (at least) yesterday. The feature must have had a timed activation. You have to refresh the page. And apparently even that may not be enough. I Ctrl-R refreshed in Firefox and still saw the button (aggressive caching?). I closed the tab and loaded gmail in a new tab, and finally button went away.
  • nommm-nommm 11y ago
    I still have the button too! Refreshed and it didn't go away. I assume I have to log out to actually remove it. I'm not sure how long this tab has been open for.
• kzhahou 11y ago
  I feel like no one is addressing one of the biggest problems with these April Fool's things: they're just not funny. PigeonRank might have been cute 10+ years ago, but now it's the same joke over and over. You know how in your group of friends there's one or two who are just super funny and make everyone laugh out loud? But then there's your other friend who every once in a while cracks a joke and you just kinda smile a bit? Yeah, that's who's putting together these pranks.
  • maxerickson 11y ago
    What do you mean by no one? I'd say more than half the people I pay any attention to howl in pain all day long. It's even been dubbed "Internet Jackass Day".
• byset 11y ago
  I think the worst thing about this is that once you hit the button, you wouldn't get any more replies from that thread. Is this really how it worked — that Gmail essentially shut you out of subsequent replies to the conversation in a non-undoable way? (Edit: Maybe you could revive the ability to get replies by un-archiving the thread? Does anybody know?) It just makes explaining yourself in the event of a mistake (and even viewing the fallout) that much harder. It also looks like they put the button where "Send" would normally go. Mistakes seem inevitable; this is pretty mind-boggling.
  • mwnivek 11y ago
    This uses an existing feature called "muting" a conversation, and yes they can be un-muted. See https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en
    • sbarre 11y ago
      I would bet real money that a proper survey would show that 95% of Gmail users don't know about that feature, let alone understand how to use it or undo it. Note I am not disagreeing with you, just adding to the point that this was a super-bad idea.
• jsrjenkins 11y ago
  I was wondering if this would have some serious legal repercussions for Google. In the US I believe normal mail cannot be substantially modified in transit, and that this is a Federal offense. For instance for a postal worker to open letters and insert cartoons because it was April Fool's day he would not only lose his job but also be subject to prosecution. Certainly an email server is in some way exempt as it is possible for software to add headers to an email, but if the server modifies the message and the manner of communication substantially, there might be serious legal ramifications to this practical joke of Google. Especially since this joke impeded the response in a way similar to scratching out the return address of a postal letter. The very fact that Google thought it worthwhile to do such a thing with personal communication absolutely boggles the mind. Any responsible organization would be insane put their email on their servers after such a stunt.
  • swalsh 11y ago
    Just because it has mail in the name doesn't in anyway imply it falls under the same jurisdiction of our federal mail system.
    • smackfu 11y ago
      Yeah, it's usually called an "electronic communication" in legal stuff, and cannot be substituted for the mail. I've seen this come up in organization bylaws that say that things need to be done via postal mail, and they need to change their bylaws to allow e-mail to be used instead.
    • jsrjenkins 11y ago
      This is more a sign of the sluggishness of the legal system to follow the reality. More people use email now than regular mail, even for official things. Most companies even accept a pdf of a signed contract as an attachment these days. The thing is though, if email was treated in a way similar to Federal mail, the whole debate about encryption and due process could be handled by laws that already protect privacy. For some strange reason, because it uses a computer, we lose many fundmental rights that we already had with Federal mail. In a certain way email is a service so fundamental to society now, that it becomes a necessary utility - so many things can't be done without an email address today.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• slg 11y ago
  This makes me wonder what the process is for these "jokes". Has anyone here been involved in an April Fools day joke that was as visible as this or on as important a product as Gmail? Where does the idea originate? How many people are involved in its approval? How much time and attention is paid to it? I think the answers to these type of questions would be pretty interesting. We need an April Fools day postmortem.
  • Gustomaximus 11y ago
    I was the push behind Opera Softwares 'Face Gestures' April fool. This was concise over a lunch time chat, vetted by my manager and went to production (I would link the video but struggling to copy/paste). I felt it was amusing and some might believe it at the beginning but 99% of people would realise it's a joke by the end of the video. The response was good. It was fun for us to make something different and gave our users a laugh and got a bit of press for the brand. I think this is the goal more than actually fooling large numbers of people. Some harmless fun so to say. That said over the years we had a few people asking about this feature as a serious option...
• racl101 11y ago
  Good thing I use an email client like Sparrow to spare me from this kind of fiasco.
• stared 11y ago
  I though that it was a really well done metaprank.
• nunez 11y ago
  Well, there goes Google's cute April Fool's jokes from here on out.
• gdulli 11y ago
  From now on when you want to illustrate the difference between "knowing things" and "wisdom" just link here.
• gboudrias 11y ago
  Does every single service of every single company need to have an April Fools' joke? The internet is incredibly obnoxious on April 1sts nowadays.
  • jsutton 11y ago
    Some people enjoy fun traditions.
• 746F7475 11y ago
  If your "professional relationship" is "destroyed" by something like this then it wasn't a real relationship anyway
  • hypertexthero 11y ago
    Agreed — If someone fires you because of this do you really want to be working for them? I think it was a great, if risky, marketing move — people all over the internet are talking about Gmail today. Sure, some may have had a bit of trouble, but the Gmail team apologized publicly, thus providing a finger-pointing target for stressed office workers.
    • hypertexthero 11y ago
      An addendum to my comment above: Three days later I have now also been bitten by Google's April Fool's feature/bug! Today I received an email from someone asking why I was not replying to the other email thread started on April 1st. The person had clicked the 'drop the mic' button, and was not seeing any further replies to that thread. Not good!
• leojg 11y ago
  People lack sense of humor :S
• qq66 11y ago
  I saw this last night while on a call with a friend. I emailed him and asked him to reply and saw that I didn't get the reply, and we both agreed that this was a spectacularly bad idea. About an hour later I saw my wife hovering over the mic drop button and warned her that she probably didn't want to use it. I love that Google's brand is fun and whimsical, but there are some things that are not OK for such a critical service. It's like if the electric company sent a signal down the wire on July 4th to make every AC motor start humming the national anthem.
• pmlnr 11y ago
  hint: Thunderbird, K9, Roundcube and Rainloop.
• pmlnr 11y ago
  hint: Thunderbird, K9, Roundcube and Rainloop.
• adrianlmm 11y ago
  "Google is bringing back Google Reader", that would be a better April Fool's joke.
• grimmdude 11y ago
  I wish I would have saw this feature before it was taken down so I would have a better understanding of why people were accidentally clicking it.
• deadcast 11y ago
  Fools day in April sucks. I haven't even got mic dropped yet ;_;
• whitehat2k9 11y ago
  I love how so many people are butthurt about this. Google owes you nothing. They are a business and you are their customer using their product for free. If you don't like it, GTFO.
  • rdtsc 11y ago
    > you are their customer using their product for free If it is free, you are not the customer, you are the product for their real customers.
  • qb45 11y ago
    Some businesses pay for it, actually. I don't know if they also received this feature.
    • whitehat2k9 11y ago
      The widespread consensus is they didn't, so that's an irrelevant point.
  • awesomerobot 11y ago
    This argument against criticism is so tired. The world doesn't owe anyone anything: that doesn't mean when someone does something stupid that you have no right to complain about it.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• exodust 11y ago
  So in other words the prank worked. April Fools day never claimed not to be devious.
• S7012MY 11y ago
  I think people should learn to read instructions and to search for explanations when they don't know something
• hobarrera 11y ago
  I'm just gonna leave these here... https://www.fastmail.com https://www.fastmail.com
• rurban 11y ago
  I thought when reading about that "Drop the mic" joke, that gmail will temporarily drop recording from the users microphone, and will not send the audio to google, so they won't be able to listen what is spoken in that room. I thought that's a neat feature, unfortunately only temporary. Romanian government used that tactic for some years on all old cable phones, until google brought that feature to the masses with the new smartphone and laptop technology.