CHENNAI: 'Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year'- This is the awkward apology the tech giant Google offered within hours after it rolled out "Mic drop" option in Gmail, a feature that Google said will allow the users to have the final word in an Email conversation.
On Wednesday morning, the compose window showed a minion explaining the new button next the usual send button. It explained that if the user clicks the "Drop mic" button, he/she would have the last word in the conversation and the subsequent replies won't be reflected in the Inbox. Users who tried the feature found the replies were seen only in the Sent box, not in Inbox.
The feature promised to save the email users from group bombardment of mails from those who would reply all rather than send a reply to the concerned person.
Within hours, Google has to turn off the new feature since it lead to more confusion as users accidentally clicked on the drop mic option, rather than the send button. “Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. Due to a bug, the MicDrop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page," Google posted in its official blog.
The faux pas backfired for Google with critical comments for the flawed feature on a day which was incidentally the 12th anniversary of Gmail, which grew in the next few years as the most popular email platform.