Recalling An Email With GSuite
When you think about some of the top favorite features in the G Suite, the Undo Send feature will probably be top of the list. Imagine a situation where your weekend plan accidentally went to your boss instead of your friends. Worse, you could be sending a highly confidential email to business stakeholders or clients and mistakenly go to another recipient you did not plan. It not only puts your business at risk of safety but can also lead to loss of company data and clients’ information that should always be safe.
Using instantaneous delivery mail is essential to send out quick emails, but it comes with consequences. You always want to avoid a business or an individual. Once you send the email, it is gone and out of your hands. After all, no human being is not perfect; even the most careful people in the world make mistakes.
Therefore, Google provides the perfect help with the Undo Send feature in the GSuite. It enables you to cancel your email request and recall it for editing or sending to the correct recipients. It is currently provided by default in all Gmail, unlike when you had to enable it manually. Read this post to find out how you can make the most out of this fantastic feature from Google.
How to Recall an Email with G Suite
The Undo Send feature does not recall the email sent. It delays the email for a certain period where you can cancel the process. Google allows you to do a recall only up to a maximum of 30 seconds from the time you hit send. Therefore, if you read this article in an email sent five or 10 minutes ago, you can do nothing now. But stay put; we may have a solution in the end.
Google takes time to send your email for a maximum of 30 seconds. That gives you enough time to think about if you made any mistakes. The settings are at a default of five seconds, which may not be enough for someone to make the right decisions.
Here are the steps you can use to customize the Undo Send. You can also follow this video from Tuesday Tech Tip by Curtis Hyde, the sales and marketing director at Colorado Computer Support.
- Step 1: Sign in to your Gmail account on any device
- Step 2: Click the Gear icon that appears on the top most part of the window to open settings
- Step 3: From the roll-out menu, click See All Settings to open other Gmail settings
- Step 4: Ensure you are on the general tab of the all settings window
- Step 5: Scroll to find the Undo Send
- Step 6: Click the down arrow to select the period of delay. It is in 5 seconds, which is the default. You can set it to either 10, 20, or 30. It would be best to set it to 30 seconds, since 5 seconds is not long enough to realize you have made a mistake and undo the email.
- Step 7: Scroll down to the bottom and click on the Save Changes button. If you ignore this step, then no changes will apply to the settings.
After completing these six steps, it would be best to send a test email to see if your changes are working and the feature is in action.
Here is how to send a test email for confirmation:
- Step 1: When you open the Gmail web client, click the huge Compose button. You should never miss it.
- Step 2: You can type your email address in the “To” field or use any email you can access. Otherwise, the email is not going to be sent, so there is no cause for alarm.
- Step 3: You can type anything in an email or leave it blank
- Step 4: Click the Send button
- Step 5: Once you click send, a Message Sent pop-up will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen with an undo button. You can wait for five to ten seconds to see if it takes time before vanishing. If it reaches 20 seconds, then you are all set. However, if it disappears after 5 seconds, go back and repeat the above steps and ensure you click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
- Step 6: If the message is still visible after 5 seconds, click the Undo button to recall the email
- Step 7: A second pop-up window appears, and click the OK button to confirm the recall
- Step 8: The unsent email should now appear on the email as a draft. You can then adjust it to remove mistakes or send it to the right recipient. For this test, you can delete it.
Equally important, you will not recall the email again when the undo message appears on the screen and you click the close button. Ensure you position your cursor on the undo button to recall the email.
What Is the Next Step after Sending the Wrong Email?
Remember the email you sent 10 minutes ago before reading this article? Well, it is gone. As embarrassing as it is, you need to stay calm and use the few options available for you to mitigate any damage done.
Now you know there is no way of undoing the sent email. You can just let it go if the email may not cause any damage to the business or reputation as a person. But it is always good to follow up and assure the recipient that it was a mistake.
If it was a confidential email, you might need to reach out to the person, apologize, and request them to delete the email without opening any attachments. At this point, contact your data security team and ensure they know the details of what has transpired. It may be a little embarrassing too, but it will help avoid many technicalities without taking caution.
Colorado Computer Support is your go-to IT support solution for all businesses in Colorado Springs. If you require any help with computer services and IT support, place a call with our experts to get a free consultation today.
