Google’s 2011 April Fools’ prank about controlling Gmail with body gestures was called Gmail Motion.
Announced on April 1, 2011, Gmail Motion supposedly let users send and read email through movements detected by a computer’s built-in webcam. Google’s fictional product page claimed that patented spatial-tracking technology translated gestures into characters and commands, replacing typing with a “language of movements.” A promotional video showed a mime performer demonstrating the imagined system.
The joke extended beyond email: Google also promoted a fictional Google Docs Motion beta, which purportedly brought body-controlled collaboration to documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and file lists. Clicking the product’s trial button revealed the truth: Gmail Motion did not actually exist.
The name is easy to confuse with other Google April Fools’ concepts, including Gmail Paper, Gmail Blue, and Gmail Tap. Those were separate jokes or fictional product ideas, not the 2011 webcam-and-gesture Gmail parody. Gmail Motion is therefore the canonical answer for this question.