With iOS 16, Apple’s native Mail app gets a fresh new set of features designed to make your email experience better than ever. Most of these improvements appear to be inspired by existing Gmail features like intelligent search suggestions and corrections, the ability to schedule emails, and snooze incoming messages. But perhaps the most noticeable addition to the Mail app is an Undo Send option that lets you recall a message you just sent before it reaches the recipient.
In this post, we’ll explain what Undo Send is all about and how to use it inside the Apple Mail app.
What is Undo Send on Apple Mail?
The Apple Mail app on iOS 16 has an Undo Send option that allows users to recall emails that they’re sending before it reaches the recipient. This will be helpful for situations where you send a mail prematurely, or you suspect the mail to have a wrong email address or subject.
When you recall a message on Apple Mail, you get a moment to cancel an outgoing email if you’ve realized your mistake within that time. The option is available only for emails that you just sent; so you cannot recall older emails that you have sent to someone.
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How to recall a message on Apple Mail
If you’ve mistakingly tapped on the Send button (marked by an up arrow), then you will have to recall it as soon as you can.
To retrieve an email from your outbox, tap on Undo Send at the bottom of the Mail app.
This option will be visible anywhere inside the Mail app for a few seconds and will then disappear, so you’ll have to act on it very quickly.
When you tap on Undo Send, the Mail app will stop the message from reaching the recipient’s inbox.
How long do you have for recalling an email?
The Undo Send option will only appear for up to 10 seconds after you send an email. So you have only 10 seconds to realize your mistake and cancel the outbound email. If you fail to recall it in the said time, the message will leave your outbox and there’s no way to stop it from reaching the recipient’s inbox. Since you can only recall emails 10 seconds after sending them, you cannot unsend older emails from your Sent folder.
In contrast, Gmail’s undo send feature allows users to configure how long they can recall an outgoing mail. You can cancel an outbound email and stop it from reaching the recipient any time within 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or 30 seconds. This way, Google’s mailing service provides more time to rethink about the email you’re sending than Apple Mail.
What happens when you recall a message on Apple Mail?
When you tap on Undo Send right after sending an email, the message will reappear as a draft on the screen. On this screen, you can make modifications to it and tap on the Send button to resend the email.
You can also cancel the email and leave it for later by tapping on Cancel at the top left corner.
If you unsend an email and cancel its draft, you will be able to find it inside your Drafts folder. To access this folder, open the Mail app and tap on Mailboxes at the top left corner.
On the next screen, select Drafts under “iCloud”.
You should now be able to see the message you unsent inside this folder.
That’s all you need to know about recalling a message on the Mail app on iOS 16.
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