How to undo send / unsend an email in Outlook or Gmail ?

How can I unsend an email that has been sent via Outlook or Gmail ?

Is it possible to undo send an email ?

Hi,

If you use Web Outlook or Gmail, there is an option to cancel the email sending. After you click on Send button, you have a couple of seconds to cancel the sending of email. But to so, the "undo send" feature has to be enabled in the settings. Undo send feature is set to 0 seconds on default in Outlook, so it is disabled and emails are sent without an option to cancel the sending.


To allow an option to cancel the email sending in Outlook:

1. Go to Settings
2. Click on Mail and then Compose and reply
3. Change the number of seconds in Undo send section



Then after you click on Send button to send an email, the following bar should appear for a few seconds:




In Gmail, the Undo send feature is enabled by default. It allows to cancel the email sending for up to 30 seconds:

1. Go to Settings
2. In General section, find Undo Send



After you click on Send button send an email, the following bar should appear for a few seconds:

If you use Microsoft Outlook (not the Web Outlook), there is the Email Recall feature availabe in some cases.

The recalling of an email can delete the email from recipient's inbox. With email recall, the email that you sent is retrieved from the mailboxes of the recipients who haven't yet opened it.

Recalling of an email is useful for example if you sent an incomplete email or if you forgot to include an attachment etc.

Email recall is available only if both you and the recipient have a Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange account in the same organization.

For example, if you send an email to Gmail account, it can't be recalled.

To recall the sent email:

1. Go to Sent items folder
2. Open the email that you want to recall
3. Click on Message tab
4. Then click on Actions and Recall This Message