You can now 'Undo Send' in Gmail to stop embarrassing mails getting to the wrong address

According to Mail Online Google has made its 'Undo Send' tool an official and permanent feature nearly six years since it launched as an experiment in Gmail Labs. To enable the feature, Gmail users can click the cog icon from their inbox and choose Settings. From there, they tick the 'Enable Undo Send' box and set the cancellation period (pictured)

To enable the feature, Gmail users can click the cog icon from their inbox and choose Settings.

From there, under the General tab, they tick the 'Enable Undo Send' box and set the cancellation period.

This is currently available for five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds and effectively delays the message being sent for up to half a minute to give users time to change their mind. And once they have saved the changes, the tool will be enabled for all future messages until it is switched off. 

Google added the feature to Gmail Labs - a scheme the firm describes as 'some crazy experimental stuff' - in March 2009. 

It was then added to Google's standalone Inbox app, which launched as an invitation only app in October and was rolled out to all Android and iOS users last month. 

To use the feature on the desktop, compose an email in the traditional way and hit send. 

A pop-up message will appear at the top of the inbox that says: 'Your message has been sent. Undo.'

Clicking Undo stops the message being sent and reopens it in a compose window so users can delete it, change the recipient or amend what has been written. 

This works in a similar way on the Inbox app, but instead of appearing at the top of the screen, the Undo option appears in the bottom right-hand corner.

To use the feature on desktop, compose an email and hit send. A pop-up message will appear at the top of the inbox (pictured) that says: 'Your message has been sent. Undo'. This is currently available for five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds and effectively delays the message being sent to give users time to change their mind

Clicking Undo stops the message being sent and reopens it in a compose window so users can delete it, change the recipient or amend the body text. This works in a similar way on the Inbox mobile app (pictured), but instead of appearing at the top of the screen, the Undo option appears in the bottom right-hand corner

The announcement was made in a official blog post: 'Previously a popular feature in Gmail Labs, and recently added to Inbox by Gmail, today we’re adding 'Undo Send' as a formal setting in Gmail on the web. 'Undo Send' allows people using Gmail to cancel a sent mail if they have second thoughts immediately after sending.'

It continued that the feature is turned off by default for those not currently using the Labs version. Read more here

Source: Mail Online