• Paul
• On April 19, 2018

Have you sent an email through Gmail by mistake? Well, you don’t have to worry as Gmail allows you to recall the email within a short period of time. In this post, we will be covering the steps that you need to follow to ‘unsend’ an already sent email.

Gmail has one of the best email apps and this is actually one of the main reason why many people have crossed over to Gmail. In addition to the features, simplicity and functionality, Gmail has made it easy for users to read their emails on different devices.

Undo Send is one of the most useful and least-known features. This feature is able to undo sent emails up to 30 secs in case a user sent an incomplete email erroneously or to an unintended recipients. If the Undo Send feature is still active within the set cancellation time, you will be able to recall the email. So save yourself the embarrassment and probably your dignity and job, by knowing how to recall an already sent Gmail.

Turn on the Undo Send feature

In order to be able to recall an already sent email, you will need to activate the Undo Send feature. Follow these simple steps to turn on the Undo Send feature:

Step 1-Sign into your Gmail account

Step 2-Click the Settings icon on the top right corner of your Gmail account

Step 3-You will be presented by a list of options. Click “settings”

Step 4-Then click the “General” tab

Step 5-Once you are in the General tab, find “Undo Send” ad tick the “Enable Undo Send”

Step 6-You will then need to select a “cancellation period”, which ranges from between 5-30 seconds.

Step 7-Go to the bottom of your screen and click the “Save Changes” button

Step 8-Once you’ve completed these steps, you will successfully enable the Undo Send feature. You will then be taken back to the main interface of your Gmail account

Recall a sent email

Now that you have successfully activated the Undo Send feature, you can now recall an email you didn’t intend to send. Follow these simple steps to retract sent email:

Step 1-Click “compose” to write an email for the intended recipient

Step 2-Click “send” to send the email

Step 3-At the top of your Gmail account, you will see the “Undo” button

Step 4-Gmail will initiate the recalling process and will take a few seconds to load

Step 5-You will then see a “sending has been undone” notification. The recipient won’t receive the email. The sent email will come back to you as a draft message that you can send out again after editing

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I have sent an email through gmail about an hour ago and I know that the recipient has not opened it. Is it possible to recall it?

A: Unfortuntaley, you cannot. Gmail only allows you to unsend sent emails within the cancellation period that you have chosen (which is usually between 5 to 30 seconds) and by clicking the Undo button. That means that emails sent after 30 seconds cannot be recalled

Q: Why has gmail failed to cancel my sent email? I clicked the Undo button within the cancellation period, but still, Gmail was unable to cancel the already sent email

A: There are a number of reasons as to why you experienced this issue. It could be Google’s error, but high chances are that you had a fluctuation in your internet connection or you were disconnected before clicking the Undo button

Q: I don’t see the Undo feature after sending emails. What can I do?

A: Well, the thing is that you have not enabled the Undo Send feature in your Gmail account. You will need to turn it on to recall sent emails

Q: Even after turning on the Undo Send feature and selecting a cancellation period, I still can’t see the Undo button. How do I fix this issue?

A: Most probably, you did not save the changes when you enabled the Undo Send feature. After turning on the Und Send feature scroll down the page and click “Save Changes”

There you go! The next time you’ve send an email by mistake or to an intended person, you know what to do.