Hit “Send” too soon? Learn How to Retract Gmail Messages

While using Gmail have you ever hit the ‘Send’ button too soon only to realize that you made a HUGE mistake? Say… send out an email to 500 people, only to realize you didn’t ‘bcc’ their address. Meaning everyone had access to the list of emails. Or you made some mistake which will prove to be a source of great embarrassment for you when the receiver reads your email.

Let me save you from the trouble of making such mistakes. Retracting is not a default feature in Gmail and has to be activated from your Mail Settings. ‘Undo Send’ feature helps you to retract your sent email if used within 30 seconds after the email was sent.

Ever heard of Gmail Labs? It’s a testing ground for Gmail features. If explored properly, Gmail Labs has lots of features which are very useful and one such feature is 'Undo Send'. Gmail Labs has both pros and cons.
Pros: lots of cool features to try
Cons: some of the Gmail Labs features can change, break, or disappear with time.

But Undo Send feature has been around for quite some time. Keep reading to find out how to enable the Undo Send feature in Gmail.


How to access Gmail Labs

• Sign into your Gmail account.
• In the top right-hand side corner, click on the little cog wheel button(options) and select ‘Mail Settings’.

Enable “Undo Send” and Save Changes

• click ‘Labs’ tabs in 'Mail Settings'
• click ‘enable’ and ‘save changes’

By default, you now have 5 seconds to retract an email after you hit the ‘send’ button. Not enough time? Keep on reading.

Enable More Time to Retract an Email

Within your settings dashboard, click on the ‘General’ tab. In the Undo Send Settings section click the dropdown button to select your desired send cancellation duration. Make sure that Enable Undo Send checkbox is ticked.


Compose Email and Hit Send

When you'll click on the Send button, you'll notice that in the yellow box above you'll have an option to “Undo”. Now you have a chance to retract your email. Hurry, because if you do not retract in the time allotted, the option will disappear. Forever!