An underrated UX: Gmail’s undo send
It’s been over 11 years since Google announced Gmail’s “Undo Send” feature. This action puts a short hold on your outgoing emails, easing the classic NONONONONONO 😓 moment when you realize at the last second you made an embarrassing spelling error, replied all, or included the wrong image attachment to your boss.
When Gmail initially launched this capability in 2009, its users had a five-second window to fix any messaging mishaps. While I still think this is a great feature—that at this point we probably take for granted—you could point out that this snackbar exhibits poor UX since the short five-second timeframe could cause additional time-induced stress. However, in subsequent iterations, Gmail let you customize the duration of this cancellation notification to 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds. (PS. After adjusting this timeframe you need to scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click “Save Changes.” I missed this on first pass 😉.) I’ve set my cancelation period to 20 seconds which feels like plenty of time to take a sip of espresso, let the caffeine settle in, and decide whether I should revisit my reply.
So what’s really happening behind the scenes?
Gmail is simply putting a delay on your message. Perhaps other mail clients chose not to make this feature as apparent, or even offer it, because they are opting for speed in sending/receiving messages. Microsoft’s Outlook does allow you to configure your “undo send” settings. However, it’s not set as a default notification. Currently Apple Mail and Yahoo do not offer this natively at all. Instead, you’d have to use third-party paid apps. (Note: there are also some hacky ways to make this kind of work on other clients but involves retracting rather than all-together not sending).
Email is different from a comment or post on a website, which you can edit after publishing, since it’s stored in a single place — on that given website. When you send an email, your mail client sends a copy of the message to the recipients of your email. Their email server receives the message and displays it in their mail client. There’s no way to undo an email that’s sent, as the email’s copy is already on someone else’s email server, and thus out of the sender’s control.
It’s our job as UX/UI designers to empower users and provide control and confidence of the applications they are using, in order to increase a product’s engagement and delight. I like the fact that in this fast-paced world, with tons of distractions and multi-tasking which can lead to mistakes, a feature was created to help slow us down (even if it’s just a bit), and make sure we have a chance to rethink a statement, an attachment, or list of recipients. Who knows how many jobs or how many potential disputes, this seemingly little UX has saved.
