Oppss... I sent an email to my boss when I shouldn't have! How do I undo??

To other Google Pro's (or soon to be) out there,

Have you ever sent an email to a Bill, but it was the wrong Bill? Opps. Opps is right especially when the Bill you sent it to was your boss! Have no fear, Google Apps has a Lab that you can enable that will give the ability to undo sending a message before it's too late. Follow along and I'll show you how.

1. Let's start by navigating to your mail settings by clicking on the gear in the upper right hand corner of your Gmail screen. Next, select Mail Settings.

2. Once in Mail Settings navigate to your Labs tab. FYI, Gmail labs are gadgets that can be added on a user by user basis. There is everything from the 'message translate' feature to a 'send & archive' feature. If you have not already, check out all the gadgets they have available. 

-Once the Labs tab is open scroll down until you find the "Undo Send" lab . By default all labs are "disabled" until you enable them.

3. Click Enable for "Undo Send"

4. You must save changes before leaving the page. Scroll to the very bottom to Save Changes.

PLEASE NOTE: By default, Google enables it so you can undo an email up to 5 seconds after it was sent. I don't know about you, but five seconds is not long enough for me to realize that I sent an email to Bill my boss rather than Bill in accounting. If you'd like to rectify this then follow the directions below.

5. Navigate to the Gear again in the upper right hand corner and select Mail Settings.

6. Within the General Tab, you will see the Undo Save settings. This is where you can extend your cancellation period to 10, 20 or maximum 30 seconds. My preference = 30 seconds.

-REMEMBER to Save Changes at the bottom of the General Settings page or  it will default back to 5 seconds. 

7. Now that was easy, wasn't it! You are configured to undo a previously sent email. The image below is an example of what you will see once you have sent off an email and realized it was sent to the wrong person. A box will appear above your inbox indicating that "Your message has been sent", click undo within the cancellation period that you set within the General Tab to undo your previously sent message. Please note that this "Undo Message" process only applies to the very last message you sent.

And now, when you are are sending out Happy Hour invites and Bill, your boss, is sent the invite, rather than Bill in the accounting department, you can sip happily knowing that you quickly undid the message before your boss crashed the party ;)

I certainly hope this is and will be helpful to you and your daily activities. Stay tuned for our next Tip and Trick within Google Apps.

Happy Tuesday!