Have you ever sent an email that you weren’t supposed to? Don’t panic—some email services come with an unsend feature.

Popular email services like Gmail, Outlook, and Mailbird offer the option to recall your emails. Here, we'll show how to unsend an email in these email services.

How to Unsend an Email in Gmail

Gmail offers an option that lets you call your sent messages back as long as you are within a prespecified time limit.

Related: Essential Gmail Terms and Features You Should Know About

Here's how this feature works: your email is put on hold and won’t be sent until the time frame you’ve specified has passed. During this time, you can click an option to recall your email in Gmail.

Here’s how to configure this feature and use it in your Gmail account:

  1. Open Gmail.
  2. Click the Cog icon in the top-right, and select See all settings.
  3. Click the General tab at the top if you aren’t already there.
  4. Scroll down and find the Undo Send option.
    How to recall an email in Gmail
  5. Click the Send cancellation period dropdown, and choose the amount of time you want to hold your emails for before they’re actually sent. You can choose to delay your emails by anywhere from five to 30 seconds.
  6. Click Save Changes at the bottom to apply your changes.
  7. To use the feature, compose a new email by clicking Compose.
  8. Write the content of your email and press Send as you normally would.
  9. A prompt saying Message sent will appear on the bottom of your screen. To recall your email, click Undo in the prompt.
  10. Your email will be recalled.

How to Unsend an Email in Outlook for Web

Outlook for web offers many features that you’re already familiar with in the Outlook desktop app. This includes the option to recall your sent emails.

In order to unsend an email in Outlook for web, you must first enable the feature in Outlook's settings. Here, we show you how to do just that:

  1. Head over to the Outlook website and log in to your account.
  2. Click the Cog icon in the top-right, scroll all the way down, and select View all Outlook settings. This opens the main settings menu for Outlook on web.
  3. Click Mail in the menu on the far left, and then select Compose and reply from the middle column.
  4. Scroll down the right panel until you see the Undo send option.
    unsend an email outlook web
  5. Drag the slider in this section to specify how long you will be allowed to unsend an email.
  6. When you’re done, click Save at the bottom to save your settings.
  7. To use this feature, compose a new email on the Outlook web app and send it.
  8. A notification saying Sending will appear at the bottom of your screen. Click Undo to unsend the email that you just sent.

How to Unsend an Email in Outlook for Desktop

The unsend feature in the Outlook desktop app is completely different from all other unsend methods. In the Outlook desktop app, you can actually recall an email that has already reached someone’s inbox.

To use the feature, there are some requirements that you must meet. For example, you and the recipient must both use Outlook and your email must be unread in the recipient’s inbox. But keep in mind that these aren't the only requirements—you can find the full list of scenarios and requirements on this Microsoft Support page.

If you meet the requirements and want to give this feature a try, follow these steps:

  1. Launch Outlook on your PC.
  2. Click Sent Mail on the left.
  3. Double-click the email you want to recall.
  4. Find the Move section on the following screen, click More Move Actions, and select Recall This Message.
    How to unsend an email in Outlook for desktop
  5. Tick Delete unread copies of this message.
  6. Tick Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient so you know the results.
  7. Click the OK button.

If all went well, your email should be recalled from the recipient’s inbox.

Outlook offers the Gmail-like unsend feature as well. If you want to use this, you need to create an Outlook rule that delays the delivery of your emails by a specified time. This gives you a chance to recall your email even if you’ve clicked the Send button.

How to Unsend an Email in Mailbird

Mailbird is a popular email client and it also offers the option to unsend your sent emails.

If you use this app, or are considering it, here's how to unsend an email in Mailbird:

  1. Launch Mailbird and click the three horizontal lines in the top-left corner.
  2. Select Settings from the available options.
  3. Click Composing in the left sidebar.
  4. Scroll down the right pane until you get to the Sending section.
  5. Drag the Undo send period slider to the right and adjust the time.
    How to recall an email in Mailbird
  6. Click X icon in the top-right to close the window.
  7. To try out this feature, compose a new email and send it like you normally would.
  8. You’ll see a Sending message notification at the bottom. Click Undo next to it to unsend your email.

What About Other Email Services?

While the above email services let you unsend an email, many others do not. Yahoo Mail doesn't give you the ability to take back sent emails. The same is true for the default Mail apps on both Windows and macOS.

If you use Yahoo Mail, you might want to think about using your email account with a desktop email client that supports the recall feature. Similarly, a third-party email client for macOS with an unsend ability would be the best solution for anyone using the default Mail app. And if you're using the default Mail app on Windows, it might be time to consider switching to Outlook.

In case you decide to continue using these email services regardless, you should be careful when you’re writing your emails, as there’s no way you can unsend them.

Unsending Your Sent Emails

Sending emails accidentally is often a source of anxiety. If this ever happens to you in the future, you now know how you can unsend your emails in various email programs. It's a great feature to know in advance—that way, you can avoid any mishaps when sending important emails.