Thank God: Gmail Lets You Unsend Emails Now

(Image credit: Getty)

published 23 June 15

I know why Gmail's undo send button was in beta for six years: because six years is a perfectly acceptable amount of deliberation time before you decide to unleash a great and terrible (but mostly great) power on the world.

How many forgotten files will be reattached? How many jobs will be un-lost? How many relationships will remain un-severed until one party loses it IRL and says something she previously only dared to say over email?

Per the Google Apps update and immediately trying this out myself, go to settings, check "Enable Undo Send," and, taking into account your reflexes and how quickly regret usually sets in, select a cancellation period between 5 and 30 seconds. (I picked 5 seconds because I like to live dangerously while also having the option of backing out.) Then...LIGHT. THUNDER CLAP. KNOWLEDGE.

This must have been what Prometheus felt like.

Chelsea Peng

I'm Chelsea Peng, the assistant editor at MarieClaire.com. On my tombstone, I would like a GIF of me that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, I'm into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard I have to go lie down.