Messaging Lag Time Rules In Gmail, Here's How

Gmail provides a feature that allows you to set a delay in sending emails before they are actually posted. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA - If you've ever hit the "Send" button on a Gmail email and regretted it ten seconds later, you'll know how useful even the delayed sending feature is.

It can happen suddenly that you accidentally hit "Reply all," or the feeling that you may have sent it to the wrong contact, or that there's a misspelling somewhere there — or, perhaps worst of all, that you're new. just realized sending angry letters that you probably shouldn't have. In any of these cases, a few seconds of stopping the email can keep your day from blowing up.

Gmail offers a standard five-second window to allow you to change your mind and unsend the email, but if you feel like you need a little more time, you can set that up.

Gmail, of course, isn't the only email app with this capability; other apps also offer it.

But it does make valuable time to give ourselves more time to rethink the email to send. While we only need to stop the email from going out a few times, a few times it might save us from, at the very least, having to send an apology for being misdelivered.

You can set it up using the web version of Gmail:

1. Click on the "Settings" cog in the upper right corner, and on "View all settings."

2. Under the "General" tab, look for "Cancel Send."

3. Choose how long you want Gmail to give you to change your mind: you can choose five seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or 30 seconds.

4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Save Changes."

You can have up to 30 seconds to change your mind.

When you click send, you will see an option in the lower left corner to "Cancel" your email which will last as long as you set that time. This feature will also be available on the mobile app. If you want, you can click "Undo" and you will be taken back to your email draft.