Ever sexted your dad? Sent a really angrily worded email to someone only to discover you forgot to delete the c-word you called them? Ever let something slip out you just didn’t want or forward an email about someone to the exact someone you were slagging off in the email? Can you identify the very email that spurred on the collapse of an otherwise just-about-ok relationship?
Gmail knows your struggle. They know that panic where you go ‘oh god oh why oh why oh why oh why’ and though it doesn’t happen often - you don’t make those sorts of mistakes twice, unless you’re seriously cackhanded or unlucky - they’ve got a solution.
An ‘undo email’ button, officially introduced today!
Here’s how to turn it on. First of all, get a gmail account. And make sure you take all of your e-communication (texts, iMessages, Facebook, WhatsApp) over to Gmail (how horrible if you got used to sending silly messages then retrieving them only to find that, duh, it doesn't work on 80% of the ways you communicate).
Then go to the cog in the right hand corner and click on ‘Settings’.
Scroll down to the ‘Undo Send’ option. Just FYI, the option is only there for a maximum of 30 seconds, and a minimum of 5 (just enough time for you to half-gasp at your mistake and click on ‘Undo’) . You can manually set how long the undo option will be open to you. Then click on ‘save changes’ and start sending some seriously terrible emails to everyone you do and don’t know and see just how quickly you can then destroy them. Go on, call your best friend a prick.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.