Let’s be honest here, we’ve all tapped that Send button in the heat of the moment and immediately wished we could take it back. Well, Gmail users may soon have the ability to rescind their unfortunate comments in a forthcoming version of the Google Inbox app.
During an AMA on Reddit, an Inbox engineer identified as ‘Taylor K’ admitted that an Undo Send feature had been in the works, but had failed to make the cut in time for launch.
The Googler also admitted support for browsers other than Chrome is also planned but was not completed in time for the launch back in October.
When asked which features were planned, but not yet ready, the engineer said: “For me it’s a tie between Undo Send and cross-browser support. Both are being worked on but just weren’t ready in time for launch.”
When asked whether Undo Send would be added eventually, the Inbox engineer added: “Yes, we're working on it right now.”
Undo Send is a feature already available to Gmail users on the web through the Google Labs beta suite. Users can go to Settings > Labs > Undo Send > Enable to gain the ability to prevent messages being sent for a few seconds after they’re shipped off.
However, Inbox wouldn’t be the only app to sport the powers to magically rescind regrettable, mistakenly sent or incomplete messages. BBM offers Message Retraction, which enables users to pull back the item after it has been delivered.
Inbox has been well received since it arrived in October pledging to revamp the way we deal with email and users have scrambled for invites to the service while it remains in Beta form.
Elsewhere in the AMA session Google said there are no plans for Inbox to immediately replace the Gmail platform, but the firm said it hopes to do so in future.
Lead Designer Jason Cornwell wrote: “In the short term, no. In the very long term, we hope so. Inbox is something new - that’s why we’re launching it as a separate product. We care deeply about Gmail and Gmail users, but in the long run as we add more features to Inbox and respond to user feedback we hope that everyone will want to use Inbox instead of Gmail. Ultimately, our users will decide.”
