Tip #: Ask Your Teammates And Colleagues For Help
One of the easiest ways to detect any typos or to check for the right tone is to get a teammate or colleague to read it over before you send it.
If you actively seek input from your coworkers, remain open to feedback and dont take it personally theyre only trying to help, and they will likely pick up on things that you may have missed.
How To Recall An Email In Gmail In A Few Seconds
Curious to know how to recall an email in Gmail? Gmail is among the highest email clients with a 26% market share as of September 2020 and over 1.5 billion active users. With numerous Gmailers, we are sure many of youre trying to require advantage of all the services features. One among them is that the ability to recall an email in Gmail.
The ability to recall or unsend an email in Gmail is superb and was introduced a few years ago. Its proven to be a life-saver for those times an error slips through or once you regret sending an unpleasant email. No matter the reasoning behind it, today well teach you all about the way to recall an email in Gmail. Lets probe the small print.
How To Recall Mail In Yahoo
Recalling email in Yahoo is a bit of annoyance. It wasn’t until the year 2016 that Yahoo decided to acquiesce to the needs of the masses by introducing a “Unsend” feature in its Yahoo Mail Android and iOS apps. So, if Yahoo Mail is your preferred email client and you’ve been worried about sending erroneous emails, worry no more because a solution has finally been provided by Yahoo. But you’ll have to resort to your mobile device because Yahoo Mail’s Mac and PC counterparts still don’t support this feature.
Step 1 First thing’s first, open up the “Yahoo Mail” app on your Android or iOS device. Don’t worry about cosmetic differences the app is quite similar on both platforms, if not exact. Yahoo Mail’s default icon is colored purple, and it has a white envelope in it.
Step 2 Log in to your Yahoo Mail by first tapping on “Sign in with Yahoo”. The next pages will have you inputting your Yahoo Mail address and your password.
TAKE NOTE:
Step 3 Next, tap on that little, purple pencil icon on the upper right section of your mobile device’s screen.
Step 4 This step is where you type in the recipient’s email address and the subject too. Make sure you input all the fields, except those that are optional. Once you’re done typing the email and fields have been filled, tap “Send” at the upper right section of your screen.
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Test Your Email Recall Skills:
Once the users have updated their settings in Gmail, then its time to test those recall reflexes. They should go ahead and send a test email to themselves.
Once the email is sent, they will see a pop up in the bottom left-hand corner: Undo
Now, depending on the settings that users have selected, they have between five and 30 seconds to recall that email in Gmail.
Once they hit the Undo button, they will also receive confirmation that the email has been recalled: Sending undone.
How To Recall An Email In Gmail

Ben Stockton is a freelance tech writer from the United Kingdom. In a past life, he was a UK college lecturer, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, he’s been a tech writer, writing how-to articles and tutorials for MakeUseOf, MakeTechEasier, and Cloudwards.net.He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing. Read more…
Weve all had moments where weve immediately regretted sending an email. If youre in that position and youre using Gmail, you have a small window in which to undo your mistake, but you only have a few seconds to do it. Heres how.
While these instructions are for Gmail users, you can also undo sent emails on Outlook, too. Outlook gives you a 30-second window to recall a sent email, so youll have to be quick.
RELATED:You Can Undo Send In Outlook, Just like Gmail
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Recall An Email Even After 30 Seconds
Unfortunately, you cannot recall an email after 30 seconds in Gmail as thats the maximum allowed delay in settings. However, you can send the email in the confidential mode, where it will automatically expire after a set time.
You can set an email to expire after one day, one week, one month, and so on. Once the email is delivered, all its contents will automatically expire after the set time. You can also recall the email earlier by removing access manually.
Heres in detail about how to send confidential emails in Gmail.
Change The Time You Have To Recall An Email
Gmail lets you change the amount of time you have to recall a message. You can tweak it to 10, 20, or even 30 seconds based on how much delay you can afford in sending emails, as follows:
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Set Up Email Cancellation Period In Gmail
Gmail gives you 5 seconds to recall an email by default. However, you can customize the cancellation period and set it to 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds. Unfortunately, this setting is limited to Gmail for the web, and you cant customize the undo send period in the mobile apps on iOS and Android. With that said, heres how to customize the recall time period for Gmail emails on the web:
1. Open Gmail and click on the gear icon at the top right corner. You will now see a pop-up menu with some quick settings. to expand it and view all Gmail settings.
2. Under the General section, you will see an option titled Undo Send. Click on the dropdown menu and set your desired cancellation period. As mentioned earlier, the available options are:
- 5 seconds
- 20 seconds
- 30 seconds
Note: Google only gives you a brief window to recall an email in Gmail. You dont have an hour or two to undo send emails in Gmail, so you will have to be quick on your feet while using this feature.
3. Next up, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save Changes. Gmail will automatically redirect you to your inbox after saving the changes made in settings.
Alternatives To The Gmail Recall Message Feature
Theres no way to do this in the Gmail web or mobile client. However, you can achieve this using Google Docs.
Open a new document on Google Docs and type your message there like you usually would. When done writing your message, click on the blue button at the top-right of the screen. Simply write the recipients email here, and you can send a document as an email.
This gives the advantage that you can make changes to the document anytime, which will be reflected immediately.
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Apply Email Workflows That Help You Avoid Mistakes
It is in human nature to make errors. With email writing tools, you can reduce the chances of sending emails by mistake. So knowing you cannot recall emails in Gmail, the least you can do is minimize your likelihood of sending an email you later regret.
You can incorporate some email workflows to ensure you minimize the chances of sending emails by mistake.
As much as auto-complete saves you a lot of time and effort, you need to be careful how you use it. When sending an email to John, you need to clarify that you have sent it to the right John. Your email can help resolve most issues associated with auto-complete functionality.
Scheduling emails hours or days in advance should help, instead of rushing, you can set up a time and date to send. This can help you compose the email without stressing, you can take your time to think clearly and identify all mistakes.
Send to all reduces the headache of typing one email address at a time. However, do not get into the tendency of using it unless necessary. If you send out an email to a large group of people with loads of mistakes, you will not be able to recall it.
Why Can’t Recall An Email In Outlook
However, if the recipient opens an email that you dont want them to see, you wont be able to recall it in Outlook. They can still receive the recall message and notice that you want to delete the first email, but it will remain in their Outlook system anyway.
If your first email was sent to a folder other than the inbox, the withdrawal will not work. If it is sent to a public folder or if you try to call it from a mobile device, it will not work either.
To avoid these situations, you can choose to delay your emails in Outlook. This means you can delay sending the email after sending it, giving you extra time to change your mind. Here is how to do that:
Step 1: Click Options in the Message window. Then, click Delay Delivery.
Step 2: Check the Do not deliver before box. Select the delivery date and time that you want from the two drop-down lists.
Step 3: Then click the Close button to save the changes. After you click Send, the message will stay in the Outbox folder until your scheduled delivery time.
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Why Cant I Delete An Email I Already Sent In Gmail
Current email protocols do not allow you to delete sent mail from the receivers inbox. At least not in Gmail. The only time you can actually delete a received email is when that email was sent within the same email network, such as a companys Microsoft exchange in-organization email system.
The Undo send feature in Gmail in actuality is not recalling your email after it has been sent. What it does is apply a delay mechanism that holds your email for a certain period of time before it is actually sent. But once your email client sends it out, its out of their control.
The reason you cant delete an email from another persons inbox after its been sent has to do with the way email protocols work. Email protocols govern how emails are sent and received between email accounts .
When you send an email, your email client will send that email to the recipients email client. First, it will be accepted by their email server and then distributed to the recipients email on all her devices.
The important thing to point out is that once your email is received by the email server, it can not be recalled because the protocol does not permit this type of communication. You either send or receive emails, you cannot recall.
How To Know If The Recall Is Done

Okay, now the biggest question of all: Did the recall action work? Were you successful at recalling the email or is the recipient reading it right now and scratching his head in confusion at what you sent? The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think. Several factors come into play here and they will ultimately determine whether you successfully recalled the email or not.
The email settings of the recipient matter. In Outlook, for instance, if the individual to receive the email has enabled “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meet requests and polls”, both the original email you sent and the recall one will be saved in his inbox. The success and failure of the recall depend on whether the recipient has read the mail or not.
It’s also possible the recipient may not have enabled “Automatically process meeting requests and responses to meet requests and polls”, and if that’s the case, then the original message and the recall message you sent will be saved in his inbox. If he opens the latter first, that counts as a successful recall. But opening the original message first entails a failed recall attempt.
If the email recipient has defined a rule, it will make the recall action fail. For example, the recipient has altered Gmail’s settings so that the original and recall email would both be saved in different folders. This will fail the email recall.
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Click Undo In The Prompt
While the message is sending, you’ll notice a yellow prompt at the top of the windowthat includes an Undo hyperlink.
Undo
Click the Undo linkto recall the Gmail message within the time frame you defined in the Settings window.
The message is recalled. The New Message box reopens with your message inside.
The message you recalled does not appearin the Sent Mail label. However, itdoes appear in the Drafts label.
Caution: If youexceed the time frame you defined the Undolink will disappear. You will not be able to recall your message.
How To Edit The Time Delay For Undo Send:
Preferably use Chrome which has a better user experience for your Gmail account. However, any other browser such as Firefox and Microsoft Edge will still work fine.
1. on theSettingsgear inGmail, select See all settings
2. Scroll to the Undo send section in theGeneral tab in Gmail
3. Set your preferred Send cancellation period by clicking on the drop-down arrow
4. Hit Save changes
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How To Unsend Or Recall An Email In Gmail: Its Easy Heres How
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The Holy Grail of email operations made its official entrance in Googles popular Gmail service back in 2015. Well, not having to deal with email at all would be the Holy Grail, I suppose, but this is probably the next best thing.
Gmail users around the world have access to a ridiculously simple feature that could potentially be a lifesaver. The ability to recall a sent email is something that users have been clamoring for. But Google finally made it available a few years ago. If you dont know how to take care of an email you didnt want to go out, we show you how in this post.
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Send Messages With Confidential Mode
Important: If you’re using Gmail with a work or school account, contact your admin to make sure you can use confidential mode.
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Recalling An Email In Gmail
Gone are the days when you have the brave office embarrassment over a mistakenly-sent email.
Using Gmails recall function, you can instead choose to get your email back and make sure that it is complete and sent to the right people.
This helps improve workplace communication and productivity, as well as makes sure that no one ends up as the topic of gossip at the next office party.
Recalling Gmail Messages: What Do You Have To Do
With Gmail, you always have the possibility of recalling emails. It makes no difference whether the recipient of the message also uses Gmail or another email program. The only decisive factor for recalling Gmail messages that have been sent is time. Google allows a certain time window following the sending of an email during which the message can still be recalled. This is like a grace period: even though youve clicked on Send, Gmail still holds on to the message for a short while, during which you have the option of recalling a Gmail email or even stopping its pending delivery.
The default time window for Gmail email recalling is five seconds. Admittedly, thats a very short window for recalling emails. Sometimes, it might take a little while before you even realize that youve forgotten an important attachment to an email or that you forgot to CC someone. Luckily, its easy to extend the cancellation period. Heres how to configure the cancellation period in Gmail:
Step 1: Open the options menu in Gmail by clicking on the gear icon.
Step 2: Open the Settings page by clicking on the menu item of the same name.
Step 3: In the Undo Send section, choose your desired time window for recalling Gmail messages.
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Breakdown Of How To Set It Up
Here is a video documenting how to do it. It really is simple and, if you take the steps now to set it up, youll save yourself a potential headache in the future.
For more help with email, see my earlier post on how I destroyed email.
This article was originally published on December 19, 2019, and has been updated.
How Do I Know If A Recalled Message Was Successful

If you wish to be informed about the result, do a recall as usual and make sure the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient box is checked :
Outlook will send you a notification as soon as the recall message is processed by the recipient:
A tracking icon will also be added to your original message. Open the message you attempted to recall from the Sent items folder, click the Tracking button on the Message tab, and Outlook will show you the details:
Notes:
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