Gmail Now Helps Users Avoid Embarrassment
April 29, 2009
Google has added a new feature to their gmail client: an “undo send” button. Users can go into their settings and turn this on to give them a five- to ten-second window after hitting send in which the user can cancel the email. This is going to be a real lifesaver for people who rage out and type something they didn’t mean to a friend, try to send a dirty joke to a friend but address it to their boss instead, or for people who say “look at the attachment I sent” when there’s nothing there.
This is related to I101 because Google has recognized that there are often problems with people sending emails they didn’t mean to. They’ve solved it by adding in this simple delay, giving users a window to think, “did I really want to send that?”
This technology, I think, is a great thing. I know I’ve tried to email a homework assignment to a professor and forgotten to attach it at least five times this semester alone, forcing me to send a second email with the attachment explaining how I’m an idiot and forgot to send what I said I was sending. Each time I realized instantly upon hitting send that I had forgotten to attach my document. If I had the undo feature, I’d have been able to say “wait, I didn’t attach anything!” and cancelled it, allowing me to not be an annoyance to my professors.
