Google is well-known for creating applications for its online search engine and document editors, but has now added another – an email “undo” button.
The new feature is designed for users to retract an email message within five seconds after the “send” button has been pushed.
The usual confirmation from Gmail that a message has been sent will now be accompanied by an “undo” link, allowing the user to return the email into a draft form. But Google warns that after the five seconds is up, no retractions can be made.
“It just holds your message for five seconds so you have a chance to hit the panic button,” Google said in a blog post. The feature is similar to another introduced by Google that forces Gmail users to solve math problems, in order to prevent sending emails while drunk.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
