6 ms·

"undo send"?

mbil 9y ago
Google Inbox has this feature. There, after sending an email, a small notification appears, allowing you to 'undo' the send for a few seconds. For the small number of times you are too trigger-happy with the Send button, the ability to undo is great.
- rocky1138 9y ago
  Yup. This feature had been enabled for me for years without use. Then last week I needed it and it made it all worth it.
drewmate 9y ago
In reality, I think the only way to do this is just not to let the email leave the bounds of their own servers for x seconds, and then only if the user hasn't canceled in the meantime. Maybe it's possible to do if you host the email for both sender and receiver, but even then, it seems unlikely given the implications of being able to see an email literally disappear from your inbox.
- stephengillie 9y ago
  Exchange offers this functionality - retract an email sent to internal senders. It sometimes fails with "The sender would like to retract this message" shown above the email.
  - IncRnd 9y ago
    Along those lines, the Outlook developers forgot to implement message recalls on the Mac client.
  - chillwaves 9y ago
    I have only seen this fail. Literally never seen it succeed but we are on O365 so maybe it used to work? Hilarious though to see people try.
    - ImSkeptical 9y ago
      Well, if it succeeded, you wouldn't see it.
    - flatline 9y ago
      I saw people (try to) use it a decade ago. Same result.
    - dingaling 9y ago
      I once worked with a guy who had an Outlook rule that immediately marked new mail as read ( and flagged 'to action' or something like that ) specifically to defeat Exchange recall. Admittedly he did manage to harvest some interesting information but mainly it was just managers trying to correct typos.
    - gnicholas 9y ago
      It was effective before blackberries (and the iphones that killed them). Basically it worked when there was a chance that you'd hit recall before anyone's mail client would have actually pulled it down.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
phalangion 9y ago
Gmail has this feature, too. It basically holds the message for up to a minute after you press send. During that time you can click the undo button and edit the message. After the time, the message is sent and you can't undo it.
danso 9y ago
Maybe it's the Unix fan in me talking, but I don't get the point of "undo send". Why are you hitting "send" if you have doubts about sending, instead of putting it into the Drafts folder and taking a 10 minute break? If you're afraid of sending an email with a typo, why not get into the habit of proofreading to your satisfaction before sending the email? "Undo send" seems to me to be inherently inferior to having some self-discipline and patience. Whatever last second doubts you've had are now simply pushed forward. Except now you've set a timer, which creates additional chance for failure -- either on the back end or on the user side, e.g. the timer expiring just as you try to panic cancel -- that there isn't when you just don't hit send in the first place. I get that products have to be designed for human comfort over pure technical effectiveness, but this is design that appeases -- at a very surface level -- one of our least helpful indiscretions.
- KekDemaga 9y ago
  Its for when you accidentally click send, not for emails you regret.
  - jacalata 9y ago
    It's definitely for both. Like that scenario where you copy edit something for hours and as soon as it's sent you see a typo for the first time.
    - gvx 9y ago
      I'm sure there's a law that no matter how carefully you proofread something, you'll find at least one typo the first time you read it after it's been published.
- badloginagain 9y ago
  As a human, I like to have tools to fix/prevent human error.
- jacalata 9y ago
  > Undo send" seems to me to be inherently inferior to having some self-discipline and patience I eagerly await your new email client which provides both self discipline and patience to users. Until it releases, I suspect the Undo Send option will continue to be used.

"undo send"?

mbil 9y ago

Google Inbox has this feature. There, after sending an email, a small notification appears, allowing you to 'undo' the send for a few seconds. For the small number of times you are too trigger-happy with the Send button, the ability to undo is great.

rocky1138 9y ago
Yup. This feature had been enabled for me for years without use. Then last week I needed it and it made it all worth it.

drewmate 9y ago

In reality, I think the only way to do this is just not to let the email leave the bounds of their own servers for x seconds, and then only if the user hasn't canceled in the meantime. Maybe it's possible to do if you host the email for both sender and receiver, but even then, it seems unlikely given the implications of being able to see an email literally disappear from your inbox.

stephengillie 9y ago
Exchange offers this functionality - retract an email sent to internal senders. It sometimes fails with "The sender would like to retract this message" shown above the email.
- IncRnd 9y ago
  Along those lines, the Outlook developers forgot to implement message recalls on the Mac client.
- chillwaves 9y ago
  I have only seen this fail. Literally never seen it succeed but we are on O365 so maybe it used to work? Hilarious though to see people try.
  - ImSkeptical 9y ago
    Well, if it succeeded, you wouldn't see it.
  - flatline 9y ago
    I saw people (try to) use it a decade ago. Same result.
  - dingaling 9y ago
    I once worked with a guy who had an Outlook rule that immediately marked new mail as read ( and flagged 'to action' or something like that ) specifically to defeat Exchange recall. Admittedly he did manage to harvest some interesting information but mainly it was just managers trying to correct typos.
  - gnicholas 9y ago
    It was effective before blackberries (and the iphones that killed them). Basically it worked when there was a chance that you'd hit recall before anyone's mail client would have actually pulled it down.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

phalangion 9y ago

Gmail has this feature, too. It basically holds the message for up to a minute after you press send. During that time you can click the undo button and edit the message. After the time, the message is sent and you can't undo it.

danso 9y ago

Maybe it's the Unix fan in me talking, but I don't get the point of "undo send". Why are you hitting "send" if you have doubts about sending, instead of putting it into the Drafts folder and taking a 10 minute break? If you're afraid of sending an email with a typo, why not get into the habit of proofreading to your satisfaction before sending the email? "Undo send" seems to me to be inherently inferior to having some self-discipline and patience. Whatever last second doubts you've had are now simply pushed forward. Except now you've set a timer, which creates additional chance for failure -- either on the back end or on the user side, e.g. the timer expiring just as you try to panic cancel -- that there isn't when you just don't hit send in the first place. I get that products have to be designed for human comfort over pure technical effectiveness, but this is design that appeases -- at a very surface level -- one of our least helpful indiscretions.

KekDemaga 9y ago
Its for when you accidentally click send, not for emails you regret.
- jacalata 9y ago
  It's definitely for both. Like that scenario where you copy edit something for hours and as soon as it's sent you see a typo for the first time.
  - gvx 9y ago
    I'm sure there's a law that no matter how carefully you proofread something, you'll find at least one typo the first time you read it after it's been published.
badloginagain 9y ago
As a human, I like to have tools to fix/prevent human error.
jacalata 9y ago
> Undo send" seems to me to be inherently inferior to having some self-discipline and patience I eagerly await your new email client which provides both self discipline and patience to users. Until it releases, I suspect the Undo Send option will continue to be used.