Google tried to be funny, cocked it up, everyone thought it was a bug

In an attempt to meet its perceived reputation of rolling out interesting and creative April Fool's day pranks, Google has pulled a feature added to Gmail this year after it quickly backfired.

The Chocolate Factory rapidly pulled the “Mic Drop” feature it rolled out to Gmail in the early hours of 1 April after it caused “more headaches than laughs.”

In a blog post announcing the prank service, Google admitted to the jolly jape, adding: “We're truly sorry. The feature has been turned off.”

Mic Drop was intended to ease having "the last word on any email", allowing users to reply an email exchange without having to receive any responses.

Google said: "Simply reply to any email using the new 'Send + Mic Drop' button. 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."

According to Google: "When you drop the mic, your email will also include an explanatory image--just to help set expectations."

Sample .gif files were provided to show the feature in action.

Alas, the buggy implementation of the inclusion of this image led to the annoying animated images being sent even when users did not click the Mic Drop button.

Just confirmed this bug. Gmail adds the GIF even when clicking the normal "Send" button. https://t.co/tSS2gdo0iQ

— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) April 1, 2016

To quote Google's blog post: "😟". ®