If you ever send a Gmail message too early or you change your mind after you press "Send", there's a feature that will help you. It's called "Undo Send" and you can find in the crowded space of experimental features from
Gmail Labs.
After enabling the feature, Gmail will show an "undo" link when you send a message. You have to react quickly because the link disappears in 5 seconds and there's no way to bring it back. If keyboard shortcuts are enabled in your Gmail account, a better option than clicking on "undo" is to press "z". When you undo sending a mail, Gmail saves it as a draft and you can continue editing the message or discard it.
"Sometimes I regret sending a message the morning after. Other times I send a message and then immediately notice a mistake. I forget to attach a file or email the birthday girl that I can't make her surprise party. I can rush to close my browser or unplug the Internet — but Gmail almost always wins that race. (...) I could undo just about any other action in Gmail — why couldn't I undo send? (...) My theory (which
others shared) was that even just five seconds would be enough time to catch most of those regrettable emails,"
says Michael Leggett from Google.
I don't think that 5 seconds are enough to realize that sending the message was a mistake, but it's a good trade-off between functionality and the need to provide a reliable service. A simple improvement could be a configurable delay before sending messages.
{ Thanks, Niranjan. }
Labels: Gmail
Ha! I just sent you an email about this new feature in Gmail Labs. Works well, too.
Alexandre said on March 19, 2009 4:41 PM PDT:
This is the most useful lab feature in my opinion.
Cane said on March 19, 2009 4:56 PM PDT:
May be they should one more " suspending" button for the people who could undo.
Iaax said on March 19, 2009 5:00 PM PDT:
5 Seconds are not enough, I now people that will come to a sad realization like half a day later when they're sitting some where cool, an thinking how good they feel because they finally said what they wanted to that person through email, xD and then come to the conclusion that it was a very unwise (just to keep it pg13) idea!
Is that or either I watch to many comedy movies!
Iaax Page
Corey said on March 19, 2009 5:14 PM PDT:
I think it should be customizable with the time. i think 5 minutes would be better.
said on March 19, 2009 6:30 PM PDT:
I think 'Mail Goggles' is much better and more smarter. What I mean is it can hold you for sending emails until you're confident in doing so.
Bill P said on March 19, 2009 6:52 PM PDT:
I agree with corey - it should be customizable
Finally... I had this posted on the forums forever.
said on March 19, 2009 10:19 PM PDT:
undo is cool. perhaps customizing the time as you like would be even better: 5, 10, 15 seconds, etc...
what about an extra option, different from this lab feature, that allows you to decide when and what time to send an email? this would be fantastic, especially when going on vacation, when wishing happy birthday in advanced (i always forget!), etc.
Wayne said on March 20, 2009 2:27 AM PDT:
hi its really a cool valuable option in gmail. i just now tested in glabs it's working fine wow. thanx for sharing such a great post.
imma said on March 20, 2009 2:51 AM PDT:
Very nice, it seems to delay sending for just long enough :-)
Although it's getting rather hard to find them on that list - I missed it twice, it's easier to find starting at the end of the list - the 6th from the bottom
fv said on March 20, 2009 5:08 AM PDT:
Definitely agree. A configurable delay AND an option to schedule the email for a specific time and date would be ideal, especially for announcements and email campaigns that need to go out at specific times.
Cakalaky said on March 20, 2009 6:29 AM PDT:
Awesome implementation - agree, customization would rock!
5 seconds? that isnt enough. how about having an option in the settings to set it at a default of 5 but changeable to 10, 15 20 seconds and a last option called verify after 10 minutes
said on March 20, 2009 12:11 PM PDT:
So, why don't "create" an outbox and let the users choose what time spent to send the message "out" of this???
Seems like a copy of resource, but seems more functional too...
I remember back in the day when I had America Online dial up and you had the option to do this to e-mails sent to other users of AOL. Gmail should do the same thing! The majority of my friends and family use gmail so it would work excellent for me.
I actually think its funny that gmail just thought of this. Microsoft Outlook has had the "recall" feature for a while and there is no time limit....
@cscottdraw:
How message recall works"This feature requires you to use a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or later e-mail account. The recipient of the mail you want to recall must also be using an Exchange server e-mail account. For example, you cannot recall a message sent to someone's personal Internet service provider (ISP) (ISP: A business that provides access to the Internet for such things as electronic mail, chat rooms, or use of the World Wide Web. Some ISPs are multinational, offering access in many locations, while others are limited to a specific region.) POP3 e-mail account."
said on March 30, 2009 3:37 AM PDT:
you can now set a 'cancellation period' in settings > general
Matt said on March 31, 2009 2:44 AM PDT:
You can use Live HTTP Headers to replay the Settings request after you've modified the Cancellation Period, and fill in an arbitrary value for p_ix_scp in the POST data. I have tested it with 60 (seconds) and it seems to work... I agree that there should be a different tool that lets you send mail at a designated time in the future.
