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Communications

After 6-Year Beta Test, All Gmail Users Get 'Undo Send' 95

Posted by Soulskill from the take-that-back dept.
jones_supa writes: Since 2009, Google has been beta testing a feature in Gmail called "Undo Send." It allows you to delay emails up to 30 seconds from when you press the "Send" button so you can take them back if you immediately decide it was a bad idea to press the send button. Google announced in a blog post that Undo Send is becoming an official feature. For users who already had the Undo Send beta enabled, the feature will remain on, and those who didn't can turn it on via the General tab under Settings. Users can choose if they want to hold their mail for 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
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After 6-Year Beta Test, All Gmail Users Get 'Undo Send' More

After 6-Year Beta Test, All Gmail Users Get 'Undo Send'

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  • With future upgrades to the functionality for the foreseeable future.

  • What About... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by VorpalRodent ( 964940 ) on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @06:55PM (#49973393)

    More importantly, can we get an "Undo Post" on Slashdot for when we accidentally say something we regret?

    Better yet, how about a collective "Undo Submit" to rescind articles that everyone agrees the editors should never have allowed through?

    • Re:What About... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @07:07PM (#49973451)

      I'd rather have Undo beta.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • It already exists!! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @07:25PM (#49973559) Journal

      The [Undo Post] button has been mislabeled as [Continue Editing], but it works even better than an undo post because you can just change your text as many times as you want until you hit the [Commit Forever] button. Note that the actual [Post] button has been mislabeled as [Preview] and the [Commit Forever] button has been mislabeled as [Post]. Slashdot is aware of this bug in the new code, but there are no resources available to fix it in the foreseeable future.

    • Re:What About... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @11:00AM (#49977573)

      I'd prefer a "Retract Comment" button that kept the comment there but changed the formatting in some way to indicate I no longer stood by it. When (not if) I say something stupid, I deserve to be called out on it and the ensuing conversations deserve to have my post there in order to preserve their context, but I also deserve a chance to learn from my mistake and to help others use my mistake as an opportunity to learn. Removing my post removes the context for later posts and deprives others of an opportunity to learn from my stupidity.

      There have been countless times here on Slashdot when I've unknowingly said something that was inaccurate and have had a thoughtful post correct me with the right information. Sometimes they're snarky, sometimes they stick to just the facts, and sometimes they blow me out of the water with vitriol, but regardless of how they do it, when they point out that I got something horribly wrong, I'd love to be able to retract my post so that the focus gets put on theirs, especially in cases where I was up-modded before I was corrected.

  • 30 seconds isn't enough (Score:4)

    by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Tuesday June 23, 2015 @06:58PM (#49973407)
    How about 5 or 10 mins? I know "scheduled" sending can do this, but this sounds a lot easier - and the usual time of, "oh crap - shouldn't have sent that!", time period for me is about 5 mins (I've found the answer, realized it went to the wrong person, etc.)...

  • Since January an increasing number of gmail users are losing sent emails. They show as sent on the sender's side but never show up at the destination server. They aren't blocked as spam, they aren't rejected just lost due sending timeouts. I have lost at least 6 emails since last week that I sent but I confirmed were never received. Worst it is usually blocked to other gmail users, or Google apps domain addresses. How can emails fail silently like that?

    • It's clear to me that the mail server at Clinton.com ate them..... Blame Hillary! (Well that and a route error)

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're doing it wrong. No one is having this problem but you.

      • I don't know about any increase since January, but I have (for many years) experienced multiple emails sent from gmail that have failed to make it to their recipient. The commonality I've noticed is that they all involve yahoo mail recipients. They are not getting bounced back to me, not showing up in their spam, or anything else. One user was technically savvy, and couldn't find anything on his end to cause it. Another user I actually looked at her account and I could see no sort of filters that could expl

      • I have had Gmail silently fail to send emails before. Not a large number, but a couple of times. I don't know about the problem getting worse recently, but it has happened to me - so not just peragrin.

    • How can it fail silently?
      When a server sends an email, it hands it off to another server. If that server responds with a success but fails to send the email later on, no one is told the email failed.

      The protocol has no method to ensure delivery.

      It's kind of like real mail. You put your letter in the mail box, as far as you're concerned it has been sent.
      You never get told where your letter ends up.
      If it never arrives, you don't know if it's been delayed somewhere, sitting in some queue or lost completely.
      The

  • Isn't this a bit like setting the clock ahead 10 minutes so you won't be late to appointments?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sowelu ( 713889 )

      If a stupid cognitive tweak works, it isn't stupid.

      Okay, maybe it is, but that's no reason not to keep using it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )
      Similar, but it's like on slashdot where you have to do a preview of your post before you post it, except in this case it sends after 30 seconds. Enough time to review it quickly and realize you didn't mean to reply-all.

  • Users can choose if they want to hold their mail for 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds.

    Can we choose between seconds and hours? It takes time for the Vodka to wear off.

  • All I see under Settings > General are Language, Maximum page size, Signature, Personal level indicators, and Vacation response. Thee is nothing about "Undo". What gives, Google??

  • Not if you prefer the basic HTML interface over their fancy-schmancy "Standard View"; UNDO SEND is not available for me.

  • huh (Score:1)

    by ChoGGi ( 522069 )

    Been using it for so long, I'd just assumed it was already an official part of gmail

  • Sofia Vergara: Yay! It unsendided!

  • A programmable send delay? Seriously? That's more stupid than the recycle bin!

  • To this day, there is no better feature of emails i.e. Microsoft Exchange here - than Message Recall. The ability to recall a message that's not yet been read or opened by the recipient - maybe due to the wrong recipient, or something you wished to edit. That's a lot more useful than the limited 30 second margin to undo a send.

    Why couldn't Sendmail - bloated as it is - be tweaked to support such a feature?

    • Because Sendmail and other MTAs don't have the message by that point. It's in the recipient's mailbox, and it's probably an IMAP server that has it at that point. Assuming their mail client hasn't downloaded it. The general rule is that only the user gives orders about their mailbox, so you aren't going to be able to order it to delete their messages. Their mail client definitely isn't going to comply without at least asking them first, and many people set them to refuse such requests to avoid complications

    • Sometimes I get an email that says "Sender xxxx would like to recall the following message...", to which I reply, "Yeah, I bet they would!"

      • Sometimes I get an email that says "Sender xxxx would like to recall the following message...", to which I reply, "Yeah, I bet they would!"

        "...and sadly, I have already forwarded it to my lawyers, the local police and the FBI."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dave420 ( 699308 )
      You might want to read up on how email works, then you'd know why such a suggestion is slightly far fetched.
      • Given that it works w/ Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, it's obviously not far fetched. You might have a point if you said that it's impossible on Sendmail like Todd Knarr did, although that would still miss the point about why a message that's not been read by it's intended recipient can't be recalled.

  • AOL had the "unsend" feature decades ago (Score:3)

    by kriston ( 7886 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @12:38AM (#49974935) Homepage Journal

    AOL had the "unsend" feature decades ago, which actually "unsended" emails after they were sent.

    So did Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Exchange.

    This "feature" is a 30-second delay on outbound messages, a clever hack, but how is this news to anyone?

    It's the "beer goggles" extension re-warmed for clueless Gmail users as it graduates out of Gmail Labs.

    Feh.

    Try harder, Google. Try harder.

    • That must be the only post in slashdot history to mention AOL, Lotus Notes and Microsoft in one post without metaphorically spitting three times.

    • Yeah - am I the only person who thinks the Google Goggles questions are a little too easy?

  • Obviously a very complicated feature (Score:4, Funny)

    by quax ( 19371 ) on Wednesday June 24, 2015 @03:52AM (#49975437)

    6 years testing seems totally appropriate.

    Agile coding at its best.

  • The people who will use this feature are too impatient to read their email before sending, yet patient enough to wait six fucking years for a stopwatch.

  • 6 years in beta test for silly "undo send", and yet still no option to disable automatic top-posting when replying to messages, or proper quoting of HTML messages.

  • I laugh a little inside when I get email recall requests. They also make me want to read the original email more.

  • I like this feature and I use it. It has saved me from many typos and a few reconsidered emails. But I think it's a poorly implemented feature. It should be a side-effect feature of a generally implemented send-later feature. The default timeout would be 20 seconds, and you could choose from a popup any longer wait period or a specific time. I would love that feature: send my brother's happy-birthday email tomorrow morning, for instance.

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