Did you accidentally fire off a few Gmail messages to the wrong people today thanks to less-than-helpful auto-complete suggestions? You’re not alone.
A number of Gmail users this weekend noticed that the auto-complete function on Gmail was acting a bit wonky. Auto-complete suggests email contacts in a drop-down menu as you type so you don’t have to type out an entire address. Usually, the first option is the contact you email most, but thanks to this glitch, Gmail has been suggesting people with whom you seldom have contact as the first choice.
For those who are used to typing just a few letters and hitting enter when composing a message, the problem resulted in a few embarrassing situations. Here at PCMag, I sent my corrections for our morning newsletter to a PR contact and a later email to our former intern Jamie rather than Jamie our managing editor for consumer electronics.
“We’re aware of an issue with Gmail and auto-complete and currently investigating. Apologies for any inconvenience,” Google said in a statement.
The problem does not appear to be affecting everyone on Gmail. Not all PCMag staffers had auto-complete fails. But on Twitter, several people were off to a rough start (see below).
So until Google rolls out a fix, be careful who you email.