Google Sunsetting Gmail Hoax

About

The Google Sunsetting Gmail Hoax refers to a viral rumor that Google would be discontinuing its email service Gmail in 2024, following various screenshots posted to Twitter / X in February 2024 that purportedly showed an email from the company. Users and news outlets later dubbed the discourse a hoax. Google had garnered a reputation online for frequently "sunsetting" various products, services and features, often leaving users searching for alternatives (such as Google Domains). In January 2024, the company sunsetted Gmail’s basic HTML view. The Google Sunsetting Gmail rumor started soon after viral complaints about Google's AI art generator Gemini because it seemed to inject diversity into prompts.

Origin

On February 22nd, 2024, X^[1] user @SHL0MS tweeted a screenshot, purportedly showing an email from Google with a subject line reading, "Google is sunsetting Gmail." The email stated, "As of August 1, 2024, Gmail will officially be sunsetted, marking the end of its service." @SHL0MS captioned the image, "SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW," gaining over 1,000 likes in two hours (shown below).

The poster was likely referencing Google's September 2023 decision to sunset Gmail’s basic HTML view starting in January 2024.^[2]

Spread

Later on February 22nd, 2024, other users on X shared similar screenshots and posts, purporting that the email was real and that Google was sunsetting Gmail. For instance, X^[3] user @squirtle_says posted a cropped version of the email, captioned, "did anyone else get this email?" receiving over 210 likes in an hour (shown below, left).

Minutes later, X^[4] user @growing_daniel tweeted the same screenshot, captioning it, "this is insane. I hate this company," gaining over 3,200 likes in an hour (shown below, right).

Posts about Gmail being sunsetted spread online, evident in a thread started on 4chan's /g/^[5] board on February 22nd, 2024, in which the original poster wrote "WHAT THE FUCK??? UHHH…GMAIL BROS?!" (shown below).

Many X users who labeled themself as part of the e/acc community spread the rumor on the day of, like Martin Shkreli whose X^[6] post about the rumor received over 370 likes in an hour (shown below).

Media Coverage

On February 22nd, 2024, Gizmodo^[7] published an article called "No, Google Isn’t Sunsetting Gmail" in which they labeled the rumor a hoax. Gizmodo claimed that the screenshot appeared to be a photoshopped version of a notice that went out in late 2023, notifying users that Gmail Basic HTML view was being sunsetted.^[2]

Official Response From Google

At 5:37 p.m. EST on February 22nd, 2024, Gmail's official X^[8] / Twitter account posted about the rumors and said "Gmail is here to stay," receiving over 251,000 views, 7,500 likes, 1,800 reposts and 670 replies in less than an hour (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References