How to Undo a Sent Email

Has this happened to you:

You have written an email, and then hit the send button.  The second you send the email, you wish you could stop it from going.  It could be that you forgot to include something and don’t want to send a second email.  It could be that you have changed your mind entirely and believe you don’t need to send it at all.

Now if you are using Gmail as your email provider you can change you mind.  The feature is available on Gmail, but most people probably don’t know it.  Here is what you need to do:

(1) Go to your Mail Settings in Gmail.  This will be found in the upper right corner.

(2)  Go to the “Labs” tab.  In the labs search box, look for “Undo Sent” and choose Enable.  Then hit save.

(3)  Now go to Mail Settings.  You will see an option to “Undo Send: Send cancellation period: ____ seconds.”  Insert a number, 10, 20 or 30.  This will represent the amount of seconds Gmail will give you to change your mind in the future, before they actually ‘send out your emails’.

(4)  The next time you send an email, you will be able to “Cancel” it from being sent, as long as you are within the time period you have specified.

Perhaps this option is available with other email providers.  At least it is for Gmail users.

Comments (1)

jswana said:

	... Good information. I don't have Gmail though!
	report abuse vote down vote up

December 30, 2011
Votes: +0