Google cancels April Fool's Mic Drop joke after emails muted and gifs inserted into crucial messages

Google has had to cancel its April Fools' Day prank for 2016, which replaced the "Send and Archive" button in Gmail with a joke button that immediately inserted gif memes into emails and muted any replies contacts might send to the user.

"Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year. Due to a bug, the Mic Drop 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 wrote in an update to its official Gmail blog post introducing the "Gmail Mic Drop" feature.

While the prank was intended to delight and befuddle users by popping a cute meme featuring a Minions character literally dropping a microphone, the gag has led to widespread backlash on Twitter from angry users, who found that they were either unable to read replies from contacts about important matters, or annoying business contacts with the gifs.

The prank started at 12 midnight GMT, but it went into effect all over the world, meaning that many people in the US who were using their emails for work were affected, even though it wasn't technically 1 April in their country yet.

Users lost job opportunities and angered clients

The situation got so bad that users were posting in the Google Help forum that they were losing work and job opportunities due to the prank.

"I just sent off an email with my resume to the first person who wanted to interview me in months. I just sent off an email with my resume. I clicked the wrong button and sent it with the mic drop," Justin Boxill wrote on the forum.

"Well, I guess I'm not getting that job. Words cannot describe how pissed off I am right now. I'm actually shaking. One click, ONE CLICK and I lost the job. Goddamnit. Not funny, google. I'm going to go cry now."

Another user wrote that his boss became angry because he never received the corrections to his work that she had sent, due to Gmail muting all responses. On top of that, the boss took offence to the Minions meme that was automatically sent to her.

"I am a writer and had a deadline to meet. I sent my articles to my boss and never heard back from her. I inadvertently sent the email using the 'Mic Drop' send button. There were corrections that needed to be made on my articles and I never received her replies," the user wrote.

"My boss took offence to the Mic Drop animation and assumed that I didn't reply to her because I thought her input was petty (hence the Mic Drop). I just woke up to a very angry voicemail from her which is how I found out about this 'hilarious' prank."

Some users also reported that even if you ignore the "Send and Archive" button and instead use the blue "Send" button situated next to it, a bug caused the Drop Mic function to activate anyway.

How to undo the Drop Mic features and get your emails back

So Google's turned off the function, but you might still have some email conversation chains that have been muted. To get them back, open the Sent Mail folder (listed on the left-hand bar), select the sent mail in question and click the "Move to Inbox" button, which will return the email thread back to normal.