Gmail's "Undo Send" feature finally drops the beta tag and will now permanently appear on Gmail settings of users.
Many people want to undo sent emails that have been sent accidentally. Reasons for undo sent emails include forgotten attachment, typo error, email sent to incorrect recipient and more. An email sent to a wrong person may have dire consequences. With Gmail's undo send feature, users have at least some time to cancel their sent emails.
Google initially announced the undo send feature back in 2009 but it remained in Google Labs for about six years where it was getting tested. Now the undo send feature has graduated and out of beta.
"'Undo Send' allows people using Gmail to cancel a sent mail if they have second thoughts immediately after sending. The feature is turned off by default for those not currently using the Labs version, and can be enabled from the General tab in Gmail settings," per Google's Apps Updates blog.
The undo send feature is disabled by default and a user has to enable it from Gmail settings under the "General" tab. A user can opt from four cancellation times of 5, 10, 20 and 30 seconds. The new feature may help cancel sent emails, but they just have a maximum of half minutes to undo a sent email.
"This feature can't pull back an email that's already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button. And don't worry - if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we'll still send your message," said Michael Leggett, a User Experience Designer at Gmail in 2009.
The new feature may help many people who often forget to attach files, make typo errors and more. However, the undo send feature may not be of any use to people who check and double check their emails for mistakes.
