Recently, a screenshot of a supposed email from Google to Gmail users circulated online, claiming that the tech giant would be phasing out Gmail completely later this year. The email gathered more than a million views across different social media platforms, stating that Gmail would be sunsetted on August 1, which would mean the email service would no longer support sending, receiving, or storing emails. However, Google denied this claim in a cryptic post on social media, saying that “Gmail is here to stay.”
Google announced last year that it would be phasing out Gmail’s HTML view in 2024 and transitioning users to the latest version of Gmail known as standard view. Despite this, the company has not made any official statement about completely phasing out Gmail. In the alleged email, Google explained that they were focusing on developing communication technologies and platforms.
Furthermore, Google recently faced backlash for a feature of its Gemini AI image generator that allowed users to create images of people. Screenshots of Gemini-created images with misleading races in historical contexts circulated online, and many criticized the feature for being “woke” and “super racist.” Billionaire Elon Musk also criticized the feature on social media. Following the backlash, Google announced that it would be pausing the feature and is working to improve these kinds of depictions immediately.
Gmail has been a behemoth in the email industry since its launch in April 2004, competing with rivals Yahoo and AOL. The stripped-down HTML view of Gmail allows for quicker load times and better connectivity while on slower connections.