Recall email function

[ladymuck]

I once wrote a pretty scathing e-mail about a tricky customer of mine (I was an account manager at the time) to send to senior management. Of course, I then instinctively put the customers name in the To box.

The Gods of good fortune were just about on my side, as I realised as soon as I pressed the mouse button down. It was like being stood on a mine, as I yelled for my mate to come over and pull out the network cable!

Sometimes if you move off the button while keeping the mouse key depressed you can avoid the 'on click' command being triggered

[vwdan]

Sometimes if you move off the button while keeping the mouse key depressed you can avoid the 'on click' command being triggered

Yeah, that wasn't a chance I was willing to take!

[NickFitz]

A potentially better implementation would be that the server is configured to hold email for a period of time before sending it on and only send it if a recall isn't received in that time.

Good as you tend to have the "oh tulip!" moment almost immediately.

Bad as comes with it a whole heap of other issues. User complaints, challenges legally about the email timestamp, blah blah.

I’m not sure if it’s still in existence, but Gmail used to have an option to delay sending emails you wrote late on weekend nights, on the grounds that you were probably drunk and would regret sending them: Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

[NotAllThere]

I have seen it working properly with intra-Co e-mails from the same Exchange/O365 server/organisation.

As you said cross-organisations it's a hit and miss. I have only used it once or twice within minutes of hitting send. Usually just prefer "reply all" with apologies and the correction.

How does that work when you've done a send all to the entire organisation?

[sal]

How does that work when you've done a send all to the entire organisation?

You hit send all, then someone replies all, warning you not to reply all, then someone else replies all scalding the other person for starting an e-mail storm.

Then the messaging admin comes to read you a lecture about not sending e-mails to the entire organisation, only to walk back with a tail between his legs after you politely point out it's his fault for not restricting the distribution list in the first place...

[d000hg]

Get a kitchen timer. Send email when timer completes. You have until timer completes to “recall” your email. Sounds foolproof.

That's basically what GMail does. Also it can cache emails sent at certain times or force you to solve math problems to prevent drunk emailing.

[darmstadt]

Lotus Notes (had) has this function where you can recall an email and it will remove it from the recipients inbox

[Lance]

How could this ever work if the sender and recipient are not using the same Email product? Someone tried it with me recently, but the original mail remained in my mailbox. Does it ever work?

It works on the same system as long as the recipient doesn't open it before it's recalled. Assuming it's turned on at the system level.

[JohntheBike]

It works on the same system as long as the recipient doesn't open it before it's recalled. Assuming it's turned on at the system level.

ok, thanks.

[WTFH]

Back to the OP, before 1973, the easiest way to recall a message was to shoot the carrier pigeon.