How to delete an email you just sent by mistake

How many times have we been on the verge of having a mini heart attack because we sent the wrong email? I'm sure often, given the high dependence on new technologies to interact at a work and personal level that exists today. Possibly you would like to disappear from the face of the earth to verify that there is no turning back, that the recipient will see the content of that email that he should never have received.

Currently, the large telecommunications companies are rushing to offer a value-added service, something that we have all spent years wishing would be invented: power delete an email from us once it has been sent. Deleting an email that should never have reached a recipient is already possible, and the same happens with instant messaging applications (Whatsapp or Telegram).

• Related article: "How to delete a WhatsApp message that you have sent"

How does sending an email work?

Here is one of the important explanations why it is now possible to delete an email that has already been sent. This is because the email in question

"travels" through various servers that guide it through the Internet to the recipient, as if passing through a toll road. Unfortunately, this act will not take more than a few seconds in most cases, unless unexpected.

Common mistakes

According to computer and browsing security experts, these types of incidents happen much more frequently than we usually think. The email tool has become indispensable, we work with it, we travel with it and we present ourselves with it, especially in the job market. Consequently, the probability of falling into error has multiplied by ten in recent years.

Sending to a client who should not see certain information, sending messages complaining about our superiors to those responsible or inappropriate responses in “reply to all” mode are some of the most common cases. Some people have lost their jobs due to these involuntary actions, or have even been denounced for lack of professionalism.

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How to delete a sent email?

Keep in mind that, in many cases, this will not be possible. We only have the possibility to delete an email already sent depending on the program that we serve.

The moment a message stays in the outbox, waiting for it to be sent, is when we will be able to intercept your shipment. Next we will see some guidelines to follow and be able to save our skins in those moments of crisis depending on the server we use.

Google mail “Gmail”

It is currently the most widely used web server, since it can be synchronized with YouTube, Facebook and Google's own search engine. In this case, we must go to the Gmail "configuration" tab, click on the "undo the sending" option, which will give us the possibility of choose the time we want to have to delete a message before it is sent.

Microsoft Outlook Mail

Microsoft users have it much easier. Outlook mail web server allows interruption of sending with more time. Specifically, until the recipient himself reads the message (it can be up to 24 hours or more). You just have to go to the "sent items" tab, click on the wrong email and click on the "retract this email" option.

Thunderbird users

This webmail platform is less known, but more widely used among expert users in the field, as it turns out to be one of the most confidential services on the market on the Internet. thunderbird By default, it has the option of leaving messages in the “stand by” tray.. We then click on the “send later” option and this can delay the shipment up to two hours.

Virtutu mail service

The Virtutu system is the most efficient, since it is the only one that It has an encryption model that allows not only to stop, interrupt or delay a shipment as it happened in the previous cases, it rather gives us the possibility of completely eliminating said message, in such a way as if we had never written it. That is, even though we have sent the message. Surprising, right?