Attention Outlook users
That message recall function? It doesn’t work.
No, really. It just compounds the error.
When you send me an email by mistake, and try to recall it, I get
- the original message, followed by
- another message, saying, ‘Joe Bloggs would like to recall the message, “Blah”.’
And then I scrutinise the original message. I’m like that.
2007-09-10 16:51 UTC. Comments: 2.
Mauro Minelli
Wrote at 2007-10-25 20:29 UTC using Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP:
Paul,You’re right about compounding the problem. When the oops moment happens, outlook not only leaves a message that you removed an email, but it only works if the person you are sending to gets their mail on an exchange server.
I have found a web service called YankBack. It actually lets you get an email back after it has left your computer. The guys at YankBack have built a system which lets you get an email back the moment you realize you’ve made a mistake. They give you a little system tray icon. When you click on it, you’re taken immediately to their server where you can delete the mail you’ve just sent. It’s a great service and provided neat protection against emails sent in error. The site is at http://www.yankback.com. It works with Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Thunderbird.
Paul Battley
Wrote at 2007-10-25 21:08 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.8 on Linux:
Mauro, that’s a potentially useful service, although if their pending patent actually gets granted, it will just prove that the patent system is daft: it’s the obvious way to implement an email undo service that actually works.It looks like all they do is just to keep the outgoing emails in a queue. While they are resting there, you can still remove them. You still can’t undo a message after it’s left the queue, but it probably covers the majority of cases in which you’d actually want to un-send a message.
They have an awful, awful website, though!