Unsend the Sent

A new feature for Gmail means to undo the "Oops" that can happen with instantaneous e-mail.

"Undo Send" puts a five to 10-second hold on all outgoing messages. Whether you addressed an e-mail to the wrong person, disclosed too much, left out that crucial detail, or simply said something you really, really shouldn't have, Undo Send can be a difference between employee of the month and former employee. Or between happily coupled and on the market. Between embarrassed and remorseful and, well, not.

Once you activate the Undo Send on your own account, a confirmation message with Undo link will appear at the top of your inbox every time you send an e-mail. Do nothing and the e-mail goes out. Click Undo and you get dumped back into Compose mode.

Gmail users can enable the new Undo Send feature by going into their Labs settings and turning it on. Gmail users can usually access new features shortly after they're announced, but if it doesn't show up right away remember that the features take time to roll out across all accounts.

The default setting is five seconds, but a 10 second option will be available soon. This is the amount of time that you have to "undo" the send, to stop the sending of an inappropriate or incorrect message.

Undo Send cannot pull back any e-mail that has already gone out. This Gmail Labs addition is a first for web-based mail services.

For more information, read Google User Experience Designer Michael Leggett's blog.