Know what your audience would and wouldn’t expect from you if you participate in a gag. Your customers are everything to your business, and a reputation is incredibly fragile. As Google showed us, many did not find it amusing. To tie in a fake feature into the user’s personal and professional routine is incredibly risky. Gmail is one of the top email tools in the world. Not everyone is in the mood for April Fools’ Day, so not everyone is on the lookout for gags, especially in their daily routine. Don’t mess with the current customers’ routine or happiness.It wasn’t an obvious gag, and it was placed directly into the user’s path. Where Google Mic Drop went wrong: This tool was disguised as a feature that customers might actually use. 99% of customers get that this isn’t a real invention meant for purchase. Google’s cardboard plastic is a great example of a product that is so outlandish and obvious, that it’s simply hilarious, especially since they took a great amount of effort to promote it. Here are some takeaways from the Google Mic Drop prank: Where is the line drawn between a funny, viral-worthy prank and a risky, reputation-damaging mistake? We can all agree that Google made a mistake, but here’s the bigger question: Long story short, Google apologized, so life has gone on! There have been reports of people having lost their jobs and relationships due to this feature. People who wanted to send an email mistakenly used Mic Drop and dropped themselves from conversations, causing confusion and anger among recipients. One of the primary issues was that this “Send + Mic Drop” button was too close to the “Send” and “Send & Archive” buttons. Hundreds of Gmail users were irate by the new feature for many reasons. Essentially, it abruptly took you out of the conversation. (1) it delivered a GIF of the Minion character into the conversation and (2) it removed the sender from seeing any new emails in that thread. Google added a feature to Gmail called the “Send + Mic Drop” that did 2 things. On April 1st, boy, did they mess up big time.įor those who have heard about it, how do you feel about what happened? This is an important question to ask yourself if you are a business owner, manager, or someone with the authority to suggest a gag campaign such as the Google Mic Drop.įirst, let’s do a quick recap on that fateful April 1st, 2016. Yes, even seemingly perfect corporate giants like Google can mess up. ![]() I guess that means that the Minions accomplished their job, sowing chaos and discord across cyberspace.For those who haven’t heard. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page. □ Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. Google quickly pulled the feature after user outcry, saying: But it also says “Send,” so people used it anyway. If I didn’t know what a mic drop was (and I’d wager that most Gmail users don’t) then I’d have no clue what this button means. On top of that, the iconography is not great. But it only appeared that once, meaning that if someone missed the notice about what the button actually did, they would never be notified again. ![]() The feature was introduced to users in a pop-up bubble when users first loaded up a new compose window. This keeps within the spirit of a mic drop, but is terrible functionality. On top of that, the feature apparently permanently muted any email thread, keeping new messages out of the inbox. 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 was due to start on Monday! This mic drop is perhaps the most stupid thing you could possibly come up with. Users complaining on Google’s support system allegedly lost jobs or job opportunities. The damage from this prank is just getting started.- Andy Baio April 1, 2016 Users, many of whom use email in a capacity other than sending funny GIFs to each other, accidentally sent a Minions GIF to unintended recipients.Ĭhanging sent email like that without confirmation is an incredible betrayal of trust. The move turned disastrous after users interpreted the Mic Drop button to be the normal Send button it was even placed right next to the normal button.
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