We’ve probably all sent an email or two that we later come to regret sending. Once you click that Send button, your words fly out into the digital ether and cannot be reclaimed. There was a small exception with Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ feature that allowed you to unsend an email within a small window of time. This feature was somewhat buggy and unreliable however and not available to everyone. After many years, this feature is being made available to all, and is noticeably more stable. Now, you have a small buffer of up to 30 seconds where you can undo emails after a second thought. The process is very easy and just takes a few clicks as well as a bit of afterthought and perhaps a sprinkling of guilt.
1. Log into your Gmail account.
2. Click the Gear icon in the top right.
3. Next, click ‘Settings‘ and then ‘General‘.
4. Under ‘General‘ is an entry called ‘Undo Send‘. Check the box next to ‘Enable Undo Send‘.
5. Now select the cancellation period for ‘Undo Send‘. This is the amount of time you have to cancel an email after sending it.
6. At the bottom click ‘Save Changes‘.
7. Now, after composing and sending an email, you’ll see the familiar banner that says ‘Your message has been sent‘. Now however, you’ll also see an option to click ‘Undo“. If you click ‘Undo‘ your email will come racing back and not be sent out to its recipient.
This feature has many applications and could have saved many people both heartache and embarrassment. There aren’t too many places in life where you have a 30 second rewind button, so take advantage of the ‘Undo Send’ feature if you ever feel the pangs of regret after hitting that ‘Send’ button. Then again, you could ignore this feature altogether and trust your emotions to send forth those words that ring true in your heart, no regrets.