First Mail Goggles, Now Gmail Offers Undo Send

Apparently one of Gmail's problems is that people use it too darn much: on the heels of Mail Goggles, Gmail now lets users "undo" sending a message...if they act fast.

Late last year, Google introduced Mail Goggles for Gmail, a feature that had users solve a simple math problem before allowing them to send a message. The idea was that people who are tired or inebriated might use Gmail to send something they’d come to regret…and Mail Goggles might prevent that from happening.

But it seems Gmail users still have problems with people sending messages they want to take back, so Google has introduced an Undo Send feature that gives users a quick five-second window to “undo” an outgoing message and bring it back into the Gmail editor before it rushes out the door. The idea is that if users notice they’ve misaddressed a message—auto-complete isn’t always your friend!—.forgotten an attachment, o simply hit Send before they meant to, they now have a few seconds to catch their mistake and bring the message back into the editor. But after five seconds, the message goes out anyway—and no amount of quitting browsers or unplugging Ethernet cables is going to stop it.

Undo Send is available to Gmail users in Gmail Labs under Settings. While five seconds might be enough time for users to realize a mistake and recall a message, folks on flakey or low-bandwidth connections might find that the five-second window has expired before they can act; and, unfortunately, Undo Send doesn’t offer users a way to select a longer delay.