(Newswire.net — June 25, 2015) — How many times do you wish you hadn’t hit that ‘send’ button when applying to a job, or e-mailing your boss, spouse, friend, or colleague. Whether it’s mail without the attachment, or just the words that sounds worse than you meant them to, when you hit that ‘send’ button, there was no way to get it back – until now.
Google has announced a G-mail feature that enables you undo the mail you just sent. Now, right beside the information that appears when you send mail, there is a useful ‘undo’ feature, CNN Money reported.
It’s “one of the most life-saving software tweaks ever invented,” Quartz’s Leo Mirani wrote.
Google formally launched its “Undo Send” feature on Monday, giving Gmail users up to 30 seconds to cancel an errant email they’ve launched into the Online galaxy, Quartz reported.
According to Quartz, the most anticipated feature has actually been around for over half a decade. Google unveiled the beta version of Undo Send in March 2009, however it remained a privilege to a few from the Google Labs.
Michael Leggett, an engineer in the Tokyo office said “my theory (which others shared) was that even just five seconds would be enough time to catch most of those regrettable emails.”
Undo Send doesn’t actually recall the message from the recipient’s inbox, Google explained. When you hit ‘send’ button, the e-mail is not actually sent right away, but ‘hovers’ for 30 seconds waiting for the automated authorization. If the sender hits Undo, the email send can easily be canceled.
Users actually can specify between a 5 and 30 second duration that the message sits before it goes out to its recipient(s).
According to Google, if the browser crashes while an e-mail hovers in between the sender and receiver, the e-mail would still be sent because it is on a Google server.
“I mainly use it for when I inadvertently hit send too early,” Melissa Coughlin, the beta version user told Russia Today.
“I also use it if I realize I hit reply all by accident, forgot to CC someone, or forgot an attachment, though Gmail is creepily good at telling you about that,” she told RT.
As it is not turned on by the default, users will have to turn on Undo Send in their Gmail settings.