Ever been in a situation where you send an email message, only to immediately realize it was a mistake and then pointlessly close everything on your desktop hoping it will stop it from reaching its destination? Whether you accidentally sent something to the wrong recipient or simply regret writing that foul-mouthed message, Google has unveiled a new “Undo Send” feature in Gmail to spare you the awkwardness.


Users can turn the option on in Gmail Labs by going to Settings. Once it is active you will see a new undo link on every sent email confirmation, which gives users a quick five second window (with an option to increase this to 10 seconds) to take the message back into the Gmail editor.

This is not the first time Google has introduced a features to protect individuals from themselves. Google Goggles, for example, prevents users from emailing under the influence by making them complete a simple math quiz first, while a separate Labs feature detects the word “attach” in a message and warns users no file is actually included.