Is Gmail closing down? A post on social media has gone viral over the past couple of days that claims to be an authentic email announcing that Gmail — Google's email service — would be shutting down in August 2024. Users have been scrambling to find out the truth behind the claim given that millions of people across the world would then be losing their email accounts.
However, there is no truth in the wild claim and is fake. Even Google clarified that it is not closing its Gmail and users need not worry. Also, there is no information available on Google's official site and no prominent media outlet has reported it.
Wild Claim Creates Panic
On Thursday, February 22, an user @growing_daniel of X (formerly Twitter) shared a screenshot of what looked to be an email from Google Analytics, claiming that the firm was "sunsetting" Gmail, its email service.
The screenshot was accompanied by a caption that read: "This is insane. I hate this company." More than 10,000 users have since liked the post, which has received over 8.6 million views.
The alleged announcement was also uploaded by X account @SHL0MS around an hour earlier. The announcement has received over 2 million views.
According to the alleged email, Gmail will be "sunsetted" in the "spirit of progress and adaptation" and the business would be concentrating on "resources on developing new technologies and platforms that will continue to revolutionize the way we communicate and interact online."
The post also said that Gmail accounts would no longer be available after August 1, 2024, during which time users would have access to and download their emails.
Fake News
However, the claim is completely false as the screenshot was fabricated. Had the claim been true, information about it would be available on the official Google website, and major news outlets news sites would have covered it.
Google's reverse image search indicates that the post can be linked to X account @SHL0MS.. It is unclear whether the email was created entirely from scratch or was initially an edited version from Google Analytics.
Moreover, the official Gmail X account confirmed a few hours after the initial posts went viral that the email service was not going away.
Several users were confused by the strange claim but multiple news outlets reported about the hoax and assured users that Google itself has clarified that it has no plans of shutting down Gmail. Hence the claim was completely baseless and fake.
