Undo

You’ve done it.

I’ve done it.

We’ve all done it.

Sent an email that we wish we could immediately take back, I mean. For example, hit “Reply to all” instead of just “Reply.” Or noticed a mistake … a big one … right after sending. Or forgetting an attachment.

Google has added an “Undo” button to their Gmail application:

My theory (which others shared) was that even just five seconds would be enough time to catch most of those regrettable emails.

And now you can do just that. Turn on Undo Send in Gmail Labs under Settings, and you’ll see a new “Undo” link on every sent mail confirmation. Click “Undo,” and we’ll grab the message before it’s sent and take you right back to compose.
undo_send
This feature can’t pull back an email that’s already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button. And don’t worry – if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we’ll still send your message.

Five seconds is a help. Might save me some embarrassment. Lord knows, I could use all the help I can get.

If only we could get an “Undo” button on the presidential election. I’m wondering how many people would hit it now?

And where else could we use an “Undo” button?

23 Comments

  1. MS Exchange has a similar function. As long as the email has not been read by the receiver, and if Exchange is configured for it, it can “retract” an email, even after it’s been delivered. A lot of offices have that enabled.

  2. I could use an undo button for those times I eat one too many meatballs. Those darn things are terrible in large quantities, and it seems every Xmas I make the same mistake of eating 1 too many.

  3. Even though it was close to 100 years ago I could have used one at my first marriage. Despite not having one when I needed it I did survive the 60’s and went on to become a respectable redneck, bigoted, racist, gay bashing homophobe, democrat slamming, gun toting, muslim hating Christian. Well….. I guess things didn’t turn out so bad after all.

  4. I bet Obama is wishing for a “Jay Leno Show appearance” undo button, and I bet his press secretary/babysitter would have settled for those five seconds to recall “Special Olympics” from that ‘tard’s mouth.

    I said ‘tard while criticizing a comment about the Special Olympics, am I a hypocrite?

  5. On the technical side, it is possible in outlook to recall a msg. You can recall it at any time, and it depends on the consent of the recipient, but I have found that 99% of the people who get a recall request agree to it out of courtessy.

    Meanwhile, i keep hitting the undo button on obama, but it doesn’t work. All that happens is a bucket falls on his head and gets stuck. Which is actually kind of funny.

  6. RE #15: Your version might be different, but the Outlook on my computer has nothing to do with whether or not the recipient “allows” the email recall.

    Email recall success or failure on my version depends on whether or not the recipient has already opened the email. If they opened it before I requested a recall, recall fails. If they haven’t opened it, recall fails.

    And the neat thing about Outlook Email Recall is that not only can we recall a message, we can replace it with something better. Too bad we don’t have recall/undo inside 90 days of a socialist administration.

  7. The ultimate UNDO button would be a Karl Marx UNDO button. Kill “Das Kapital” and the cascade of retarded ideology would be nipped, rather effectively, in the bud. Then we wouldn’t need any UNDO button for hObama, Her Royal Thighness, Sub-Prime Lending mess, Homes for Homies, the New Deal, etc.

    A lot of wrong headed thinking corrected with a simple press of a button. Fantastic!

  8. Undo button for:

    Too much tequila/rum/vodka/yeagermeister

    Fat and or ugly women/men after too much tequila/rum/vodka/yeagermeister

    Rinsing greasy hippy off hands in clean stream

    nancy pelousy, harry reid, present hussein, rahm “fwanks fwend” ahmanual

    chicago style pizza

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