If instant chat apps have become a legion on our mobile phones, the classic email remains indispensable. Especially in professional conversations or administrative exchanges.
Of course, the bad reflexes of our instant conversations can sometimes trap us. Among the tendency to press the button too fast To send and just forgetting important things like attachments…
We wish it was possible many times a day to cancel the sending of an e-mail. But these little things fade so quickly… Fortunately, Gmail is thinking of you and has the option to recall an email that was sent by mistake.
Gmail: how to unsend an email
Of course, sending an email normally happens almost instantly, making it nearly impossible to get it back once the “Send” button is pressed. So let’s be clear: there is no option to delete a message already in the recipient’s mailbox.
For this, Gmail always observes a delay of a few seconds after the important action. That way, you’ll have time to catch up before that irrelevant gif from a letter is sent to your boss.
This feature has been around for years. The functionality is now enabled by default on all Gmail accounts if needed to be enabled beforehand during the experimental phase. So you don’t have to do anything unless you want to change the default delay time.
We’ll see how we move forward. But first, here’s how to bounce an email in Gmail. Warning : by default you only have 5 seconds to withdraw. After the message is sent, just hit the cancel button at the level of the black bubble displayed at the bottom of the screen (smartphone or PC).
How to change the delay time?
- Go to Gmail.com and login to your account
- In the top right, click the gear button
- click All Parameters
- Find the line in the General tab cancel sending
- Click the drop-down field to set the cancellation period after submission. The default cooldown is 5 seconds, but you can increase the timeout to 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
- Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
Now you have more time to get your emails back if you make a mistake. After the configured time, the send action becomes irreversible.