How to Unsend an Email in Outlook

How to Unsend an Email in Outlook

“Have you ever experienced that sinking feeling in your stomach after accidentally sending an email you weren’t supposed to? That moment when you think, ‘What did I just do?’”

Fortunately, it is possible to immediately unsend or recall an email after hitting send.  

To unsend an email you firstly need to enable the “Undo Send” feature in Outlook web client.

Enable Outlook Undo Send Feature

• Click on the Settings Icon in the top right-hand corner of Outlook
• A settings sidebar will appear on the right of the screen, once this appears click “view all Outlook settings” at the bottom of the sidebar
• A pop-up window will appear, click on Mail, then Compose and Reply
• Scroll down until you see the heading “Undo Send”
• You will see a scroll bar appear, move the slider to select your preferred number of seconds (from 1-10 seconds, max) and click on save.   

• Close the settings menu and send an email to confirm the feature works. After hitting send, a notification will appear in the bottom left corner (see below) giving you the option to simply click “Undo” to unsend the email. Remember you only have up to 10 seconds to unsend the email so select “Undo” before the icon disappears.

How to Unsend or Recall Emails in Outlook Desktop

The Microsoft Desktop version of Outlook lets you recall a message for up to 120 minutes after sending it. Unfortunately, the Unsend feature is only available on the Web client version of Outlook.

Follow the below steps to recall a message in your outlook desktop outbox.

• Open the “Sent Items” folder, and double-click the email you would like to recall
• Your email will appear, select “File” on the menu bar, then select "Info” and “Resend or Recall”

• Select “Recall this message”

• Select “Delete unread copies of this message "and then click “OK” to recall the email.

The good news is, next time you send an email you know there are options to rectify the situation should things go wrong. If you would like to know more about the office 365 suite and how Outlook can work for you and your business, please reach out to one of our friendly staff who will be more than happy to assist you and answer any questions you may have.