The use of email it is very widespread today, as it allows people and institutions to communicate with each other in a simple and efficient way. Every day, even without worrying about it, we send and read many emails. In the rush, however, it can happen that, especially in the sending phase, mistakes are made that make us regret not having reread the text once more. Fortunately, today, this problem has been partially solved with a function that allows you to cancel sending an email just drawn up. To find out what this function is, continue reading.
How to send an email
Let's start from the basics, before understanding how to cancel sending an email, it is necessary to clarify how to write one. There is no single answer, as today there are numerous systems that allow you to accomplish this task. Here, for brevity, we will use the example of two very popular providers: Gmail and Outlook.
On Gmail, simply press the button that says “You write” and the pen icon. Once this is done, a new window will open in which it will be possible to enter the text, the subject of the email and the recipient. Once you are finished, you can press on the arrow pointing to the right on your smartphone, or on the “” buttonSend” visible from PC.
As for Outlook, the process for sending an email is very similar. On the PC the button to start writing a new email “New email message” is located at the top left, while on a smartphone it is located at the bottom right and just reads “New message“. In this case the send button is the same on both supports and is depicted with an arrow pointing to the right.
How to attach a document to an email
Another very common practice is that of attach documents to emails. These can have multiple formats – .doc, .pdf, .jpeg, etc. -, the important thing is that they do not exceed in size, otherwise it will not be possible to attach them. The procedure for adding content of this kind to your email involves, on Gmail, pressing the button with the clip present in the toolbar, after which you can choose the file type.
On Outlook, to attach a file from a PC you need to open a new window to write an email and scroll the toolbar until you find a paper clip, too. Once found, you need to press on it and select the file you want. Even on a smartphone the procedure is very similar: after opening a new window, just press on the second icon from the left, the same as the one on the PC, and choose the attachment.
It is very important to remember that, in certain cases and especially from smartphones, the system may ask for authorization to access your documents when you are trying to attach a file. If a message of this type appears, simply accept to continue, or go to the settings and enable the app's access to your documents.
How to know if the email has been sent
Very often it happens that, after sending an email to which no response has been received, one wonders whether it was sent correctly or remained in the mail. drafts.
To verify that this unpleasant inconvenience has not occurred, simply open the “Sent Items” folder in your email inbox. Here are all the emails sent, none excluded. If you happen to not find one that you think you sent, it is very likely that you actually did something wrong. In this case, you should check the drafts, i.e. where the emails written but not sent are located, because that is where they often hide.
Regardless of which email provider you use, both sent and draft mail are in the same place. That is, in the left menu, visible from both smartphones and PCs, under the “Inbox”.
How to know if the email you sent has been read
To find out if the email sent has been read it is necessary to resort to the so-called “Read confirmation“. Let's see how to activate it on both Gmail and Outlook. Let's start from the latter: currently it is not possible to add the read confirmation from a smartphone, but only from a PC. To do so, it is necessary to open a new window to write an email, go in “Options“, press on the three dots arranged horizontally at the far right of the tools menu and finally select “Request read receipt“. This way, when the recipient receives the letter, he will be asked for permission to confirm that he has read it. If he accepts, you will know that he has read your email.
On Gmail, at the moment, there is only one way to know if the person you are writing to has read your email, but to access it you need to have Google Workspace, a paid service made especially for companies. For “traditional” users, this possibility is not currently available. If you have this service, to activate the read receipt, you need to go to “Other options” while writing the email and then select “Request read confirmation”.
How to unsend a wrong email
So we come to the most important point: How to cancel sending an email? The answer is not trivial, as it depends on the provider you are using. Let's start with Gmail, to cancel sending an email from your smartphone or PC, once you press the send button, a message will appear overlaid with the word “Send message” and next to it a button with the word “Cancel”.
If you decide that what you have written does not satisfy you, you can press on the latter and cancel the sending. The time to unsend the email may be extended up to 30 seconds through the settings, in the “Cancellation period” section.
As for Outlook, the process is a little different.
Let's start by clarifying that, first of all, with this provider, canceling the sending of an email is only possible from a PC and not from a smartphone; furthermore, emails can only be recalled as long as the recipient has an Exchange or Microsoft 365 account in the same organization. In any case, to cancel sending an email from Outlook, you need to:
- Select the “Sent Items” folder
- select or double-click the email so that it opens in another window,
- go to the “File” section and press on “Information”.
- select Resend or recall message and then “Recall message”
- select “Delete unread copies of message” to recall the sent message.
- choose OK.