NEW YORK - Google is acknowledging that it pranked itself after an April Fools' Day Gmail tweak angered some people who use Google's email for work.
    
The company added a button to its email service that allowed users to send out a minion GIF, a character from the animated film "Despicable Me," which would drop a microphone and then mute responses to emails the user sent.
    
The Gmail Help Forum on Thursday was soon populated by angry users who say they unintentionally attached a minion dropping a mic during important business communications.
    
Google Inc. apologized and turned off the feature, saying that due to a bug, the mic drop "inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs."