Text message in the heat of the moment only to realize seconds later hit “send”. Whether it was an overly emotional rant to your boss, an embarrassing typo-filled message to a new romantic interest, or accidentally copying the wrong person on sensitive information, that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach sets in as you imagine the irreversible damage that message might cause once read by the recipient. You can often recall or unsend messages before they’re read, as long as you act very quickly. Most major email services and messaging apps now offer some form of this “undo send” feature.
Enable undo send before you need it
The key to successfully recalling a message is enabling the unsend feature before that panic-inducing moment strikes. Once you send the message, you only have a concise window, ranging from a few seconds to a minute, depending on the platform, to hit undo. So don’t wait – go into your email and messaging app settings right now and make sure the option to unsend or recall messages is turned on.
Gmail undo send
Click the gear icon in Gmail and select “See all settings.” Scroll down to “Undo Send” and choose a 5, 10, 20, or 30 second’s cancellation period.
Outlook recall message
In Outlook, the unsend feature is called “Recall Message”. It’s not enabled by default, so you must add it to your toolbar. Go to the Message tab, click the down arrow in the Actions group, and choose “Recall This Message.” This will add the option to your toolbar for future use Organize Your Notes with notesonline.
Apple mail undoes send
On a Mac, go to Mail > Preferences > Composing and select “Enable Undo Send delay”. Set your preferred delay period.
Other email apps
Many other popular email clients, including Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Polymail, also offer undo-send options in their settings. Always make sure it’s enabled ahead of time.
Unsending text messages
Unlike email, it’s trickier to unsend text messages and other instant messages. There’s no universal option that applies across all platforms. But many popular messaging apps are starting to introduce unsend features:
What sapp delete for everyone
In WhatsApp, you can “delete for everyone” a message within one hour of sending it. Open the conversation with the message you want to delete, tap and hold on to the message, choose “Delete”, then “Delete for everyone”.
Signal unsend message
Signal gives you a generous three-hour window to delete a message for everyone. Tap and hold on to the message and select “Delete for everyone.”
Facebook messenger unsend
Facebook Messenger allows you to unsend a message within 10 minutes of sending it. Tap and hold the message and select “Remove for everyone.”
Even if you successfully recall an instant message, it does not mean the recipient won’t ever know about it. Depending on their email client and settings, they may still receive a notification that you recalled a message, making it clear that you sent something and then thought better of it.
