It has happened to everyone at some point that they have sent an incomplete email, with writing/spelling errors, without the attachments that it should include, raised in tone and, later, we have realized when we have already hit the send button . Depending on the email platform we use, all is not lost. Both Google through Gmail and Microsoft through Outlook allow us to retrieve the emails we have sent, yes, if we are fast enough, since we have a limited time to do so.
And I say that you have to be fast, since emails are sent instantly, without waiting for time for the servers to do their job when they connect, as was the case during the early years of the Internet. In addition, another aspect that we must take into account is that this function is only available through the web . The function that allows us to cancel the sending of an email is not available through applications to manage emails, such as the Mail application available natively in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Retrieve email sent with Gmail
Gmail allows us to configure the maximum recovery time of a message that we have sent, a time that starts at 5 seconds and extends up to a maximum of 30. After this period, it is impossible to recover or undo the sending of an email through this platform. Natively, Gmail allows you to retrieve sent emails up to a maximum of 5 seconds after clicking on the send button. To recover an email, we just have to click on the Undo button that appears at the bottom of the browser we are using. At that time, the email editor will reopen allowing us to make the changes we deem appropriate.
If we want to modify the recovery time of the messages we send up to a maximum of 30 seconds , we must access the configuration options of our account, clicking on the cogwheel and then clicking on See all settings. In the General tab, we look for the Undo the sending section, click on the drop-down box and select 30 seconds.
Cancel sending an email from Outlook
Microsoft’s email platform, Outlook also allows us to retrieve emails once they have been sent. Like Gmail, we have a maximum recovery period, after which it will be impossible to recover it without accessing the recipient’s account. Unlike Gmail, the maximum time established by Outlook is 10 seconds, a period that we can only reduce, but not extend. If we want to cancel the sending of an email from Outlook, we just have to go to the bottom of the browser once we have pressed the send button and then click on Undo. When you click Undo, Outlook will reopen the email editor to modify it, include files or whatever we need to do.
To modify the maximum time established by Outlook to cancel the sending of an email, we must access the platform settings by clicking on the cogwheel and then on See all Outlook settings. Next, tap Mail, and in the section on the left, tap Compose & Reply. We scroll down until we find the option Cancel shipping. The native time established by Outlook is 10 seconds, a time that we cannot extend , but we can reduce it by sliding the bar to the left.
