It was in 2015 that the email service Google’s popular Gmail made its official debut as the “Holy Grail of email.” Obviously, being able to completely avoid dealing with email would be the Holy Grail, but for the time being, this is probably the next best thing.
Gmail users all over the world have access to a ridiculously simple feature that has the potential to save their lives: the ability to recall an email that has already been sent.
You can learn how to deal with an email that you didn’t want to send out in this post if you don’t know how to do it already.
Using the Undo Send feature in Gmail, you can recall an email.
How many times has something like this occurred to you? You receive a ridiculous email from your boss and want to share it with a specific coworker in order to make him laugh.
You quickly type out your response and hit send, only to realize an instant later that you accidentally clicked “Reply All,” ensuring that you will have awkward encounters with your boss for at least another month or two.
There’s a useful feature in Gmail that can help you avoid situations like this one in the future.
All users have the ability to cancel a sent message. If you change your mind and decide not to send it, you only have a limited amount of time to undo the decision. According to Google’s support forums, a few steps must be completed.
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Here’s how to configure the Undo Send feature:
- On the Gmail website, select Settings from the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Unsubscribe from a mailing list should now be listed as the fourth option on the General Tab.
- Now, from the drop-down menu, select the amount of time you’d like to have the ability to recall your sent emails before they expire. There are five different time options: 5, 10, 20, and 30 seconds.
- Don’t forget to click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
The feature is actually quite simple; it simply allows you to set a delay before pressing the Send button. Instead of immediately sending your emails when you click Send, it stores them for the amount of time you specify before sending them.
This way, if you accidentally send something that you didn’t intend to, you can easily undo it.
You’ll see this box at the bottom left of your Gmail page after each email you send if you have Undo Send enabled.
After selecting “Undo,” your email will be displayed on the screen once more, allowing you to make any necessary changes before sending it again.
Detailed instructions on how to set it up
Here’s a video that shows you exactly how to do it.