While Google is notorious for killing off products—even popular ones—there is no truth to claims that the tech giant is shutting down Gmail.
The deliberate hoax originated, unsurprisingly, on Twitter, in the form of a screenshot of an announcement that immediately ricocheted across the service with the help of several high-profile accounts—which may or may not have been in on the joke.
Attempts to tamp down the hoax came quickly, but not fast enough to prevent “Gmail” from trending across Twitter, and it is spreading quickly across other social media platforms like Facebook.
Cool your jets, folks. That “Gmail is sunsetting” notice is a hoax.
Still, it’s never a bad idea to back up the stuff in your inbox that’s really important to you. Here’s how to do it. https://t.co/LQZ8tztzia
— WIRED (@WIRED) February 22, 2024
Seeds of today’s hoax were planted last fall, when Google announced that it was retiring a low-bandwidth view of Gmail. But the cloud of confusion was exacerbated by unrelated reports today that the tech giant was pulling back its release of the Gemini AI image generator due to unexpected results when depicting people.
Both stories were tapped together for comedic effect.
What made the Gmail shutdown hoax most credible, however, is how swiftly Google reaches for the ax regarding its products and services. So much so that there are several “Google graveyard” websites to track the digital body count. In fact, while the Gmail rumor spread today, Google was busy telling the world that Google Pay was going away.
Google has not yet responded to a request for comment from Decrypt.
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