How to Unsend an Email Using Gmail with Undo Send Option?

How many of you have experienced email regret?

I have.

And I often wondered if there is an option to ‘unsend’ an email after we have pressed the send button hastily, in a fit of rage or accidentally.

Email regret is associated with situations in which you Pressed the SEND button too soon after typing a:

1. Emotionally charged email

2. Impulsive email

3. Pressed the send button accidentally on an incomplete email

4. Email with lots of typos and /or grammatical errors

5. Sent email to the wrong person

6. Forgotten to attach the file you were suppose to send

In any of these situations, wouldn’t it be simply great if you could undo the damage by unsending the email after you have actually sent it?

How to Use “Undo Send” Option on Gmail?

If you are using Gmail, you can unsend your emails, using the Undo Send Feature.

If you enable the Undo send feature, you get a few seconds of thinking time after you have pressed the SEND button and the email is actually sent out. If you choose to change your mind during those few seconds, you can cancel the sent message.

Follow the following simple steps to unsend am email message using Gmail:

1. Look for the Settings icon at the top right hand corner of your Gmail account and click on it.

2. Go to the Settings option in the dropdown menu list.

3. Click on the Labs option and scroll down the page looking for Undo send option. Enable this.

4. You’re done! Once this feature has been enabled, none of your email messages will be sent immediately. They will be saved for a few seconds, during which you can change your mind.

5. Not only can you choose to unsend a sent email, you can also choose how many seconds of waiting time you want between your pressing the send button and the email actually being sent. Go to settings icon again.

Go to Settings> General> Undo Send> Send cancellation period.

Now you can choose the number of seconds by which you intend to delay the sending out of your email messages. I have set mine to 30 seconds.

Testing the Undo Send Feature on Gmail

Suppose you sent out a rather rude email to your client who has not made the payment in time. you are actually frustrated at him because you need the money and he has not paid up in time, inspite of promising to do so.

The moment you press the SEND button, you begin to regret, thinking how valuable a customer he is and how you cannot afford to lose him.

Had you not activated the Undo send option, the email message would have reached your client’s inbox within a few seconds.

By enabling this feature, you see this message on your screen after pressing SEND.

If I click on UNDO within 30 seconds (I set mine to 30 seconds earlier) , my email message will not be sent and I can heave a sigh of relief.

Hope it helped.