How to Undo "Wrong Sent E-mails" in Gmail.

Have you ever regretted e-mailing a message right after clicking the “Send” button? Have you ever addressed an e-mail to the wrong person? Have you ever spotted those typos just seconds too late? If you have, then you must be one of the many who’ve been dreaming of ways to right a wrong send.

Well, time to wake up. No need to dream anymore. Thanks to the people at Google, the feature to undo a sent e-mail now does exist… in Gmail, at least.

Admittedly, it’s still not a well-known feature just yet, especially with most users not knowing where to look. So here’s a quick guide to avoid that impending blunder with just the click of a button.

Go to Gmail Labs

Since the “Undo Send” feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to activate it via the Gmail Labs page. Access your Gmail account and look at the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and the Settings link, you’ll see the Green Labs icon. Click it.

Enable “Undo Send” and Save

Once in Green Labs, you’ll find a list of Google features currently being tested for Gmail. You’ll usually find the “Undo Send” feature close to the bottom of the list. Just select “Enable” it, then scroll down and save your changes.

Customize Undo Send’s Duration

Go to “Settings” in the top right corner of your main Gmail page (right next to the Green Labs icon) and find the “Undo Send” section under the “General” tab. There you can enable or disable Undo Send and change the duration with a drop-down selection box as pictured below. By default, you’re given 10 seconds within which you may undo a sent e-mail, but you can change that to 5, 20 or 30 seconds.

Write and Send Your E-mail

Now that it’s enabled, “Undo Send” should work each time you send a new e-mail. No need to do anything unusual beforehand to make it possible to use Undo Send with an e-mail.

Click the “Undo” Button After You Send

As soon as you hit Send, text saying “Your message has been sent” will appear above your Inbox. Beside that, you’ll find a few extra options. Among them is “Undo.”

Now should the need arise, you have either 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to “Undo” your sent e-mail, depending on what you selected under Settings. You can also hit “Z” on your keyboard, which is the Gmail shortcut for “Undo”.

Just make sure not to navigate away from or close this page, because once you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to undo your sent message… forever.

Undo is done!

If done successfully, text saying “Sending Has Been Undone” will appear above your inbox. You’ll then be taken back to the e-mail composition page, with your e-mail in draft form, unsent and ready for further editing — or deletion, should that be the drastic need necessary.

Voila! You now know how to right that wrong send! Be aware though, that the “Undo Send” feature is still part of Gmail Labs. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended. But, promising, it is! It is!

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, budgetstockphoto

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