Gmail's iPhone App Now Has 'Undo Send' and Faster Search (mashable.com)

Google has updated its Gmail app for iOS today, which includes a handful of much-welcomed features and improvements. There is now an "Undo Send" button for mobile, a fresh new look, and faster search. Mashable reports: To unsend an email, just tap the "Undo" button in the lower right corner after you've hit the paper plane send icon. But you have to do it fast. You only get five seconds to hit undo before the email sends. And unlike the desktop version, you can't set it to longer intervals up to 30 seconds. You'll also notice Gmail app's got a fresh new look that resembles the Android version, which makes use of Google's Material Design language. Google's also made search faster with autocorrect suggestions and added in swipe gestures for archiving and deleting. In addition, Google has updated its Calendar application for iOS, bringing an overhauled UI and support for Spotlight search.

Comments

Re:Is "Cops" realistic?

[sexconker]

We've come a long way since COPS was in production.
We usually skip the screaming, running, etc. and go straight to shooting them in the back now.

Five second remorse?

[rmdingler]

Nah, I don't typically begin to question myself for minutes on end...

Re:Five second remorse?

[hcs_$reboot]

5" is definitely too short. Need the time to read most of the sent mail, and 30" on desktop is just fine.

Re:Five second remorse?

[msauve]

Huh? The undo is just to cover you if you accidentally hit send. If you deliberately pressed send without being sure about what you wrote, you're doing it wrong.

Re:Five second remorse?

[hcs_$reboot]

That doesn't happen often, but on the very few occasions that happens, 30" is not too much.

Um.. Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. this is a story about the addition of a button. They added a button to an application. Hmm.. wow. Just... wow.

Re:Um.. Seriously?

[unixisc]

Precisely, especially given how it's only there in one edition of the app - the iOS one, and also, how Microsoft has had that for at least a decade

"Undo Send" Is Just "Delay Send"

[unamiccia]

Some of the stupidest IT support conversations I've ever had have been with people who thought they could "undo" a mistakenly sent email because someone once sold them on an "Undo Send" option that was just a "Delay Send" option for X minutes. Try telling someone "No, you definitely sent that email" when they think, "No, if you'd let me use Outlook, I could summon that email back and it would disappear." I'm sure this idiotic "feature" will recur again and again as long as we have email and will inspire infinite fresh gems of magical thinking.

Re:"Undo Send" Is Just "Delay Send"

[93 Escort Wagon]

The only way to "undo send" is to go to the recipient's computer and strike it repeatedly with a hammer. The cracks and fissures which form will allow the electrons from your email to escape.

But that only works if the recipient hasn't read it yet.

If the message has already been read, to allow it to escape you need to strike the recipient's head repeatedly with a hammer.

Re:"Undo Send" Is Just "Delay Send"

[thegarbz]

No, if you'd let me use Outlook, I could summon that email back and it would disappear.

Well actually that is something completely difference. In outlook you can most definitely summon an email back using the retract function. However this relies on the fact that the person reading it reads it in last in first out order and hasn't gotten to your original email yet as it is a client action that deletes the email. Also from seeing it a few months ago I think it also relies on the user accepting a popup request to delete the email. I can't remember that so clearly since it's rarely used.

Dumb system either way. I suggest when a user clicks on the retract button the computer instead shows a bluescreen that says "Unrecoverable error: User too stupid"

Re:"Undo Send" Is Just "Delay Send"

[unixisc]

I don't think the recipient has to be outlook, but the sender has to be Outlook and the sender's mail server has to be Microsoft Exchange. In which case Exchange will check whether the mail has been opened or not - either by the recipient having already logged in and opened the message. If he has, then it would be a fail, but if he hasn't, a recall would be successful. It's in the Message tab of Outlook under Actions, and has a button 'Recall this message'. One has to open the actual message in Sent Items to recall it.

Re:"Undo Send" Is Just "Delay Send"

[Trogre]

You should have gotten a +5, Insightful for that.

Just saying.

Added new features while breaking others

[Dayze!Confused]

Not only did they add the "Undo Send" feature, they broke their links that now open in Safari rather than Chrome. They made settings even harder to get to, especially if you have a lot of labels, but added a "open in app" setting, which oddly is missing Chrome, though most other Google apps appear, and if you don't have one installed instead of a toggle it shows "Install" which takes you to the App store to let you install the app.

Upon first use I kept getting "Background send process failed" popups. They also changed the organization of tabs so that the Primary tab is the main tab always available, all other tabs must be backed out to the Primary tab before you can look at other tabs. So instead of going to "Updates" to see important updates, then switching to "Promotions" I have to now go to "Updates", then back out to "Primary", then switch to "Promotions". Thanks Google for making learned tasks more complicated and having to reteach my muscles how to switch tabs.

Re:Added new features while breaking others

[hcs_$reboot]

Thanks, I'll wait before switching to Gmail from Mail (which also has flaws in iOS10).

Resend old emails bug?

[JThaddeus]

Since upgrading GMail late this afternoon on my iPhone and iPad, over a dozen old emails--I mean well over a year old--have been resent. None were in Drafts or elsewhere than the Sent Mail folder, and I can detect no pattern to it. Has anyone else seen this?

and notification sound

[bonizzem]

They added also a new notification sound different from the default one, but I am still missing the option to select a custom sound.

Prefer MS Exchange Server/Outlook

[unixisc]

Nah, I don't typically begin to question myself for minutes on end...

I know it's more politically incorrect here to like Microsoft than to like Iran, but I've always liked the capability that any mail system based on Exchange Server and Outlook have, where you can go in, open a mail and attempt to recall a message. If the recipient hasn't read it or opened his mail, the recall is successful, otherwise, it ain't.

That sounds a lot smarter than a 5 second wait. Speaking of which, in any mail system, if you manage to disable your WiFi or unplug your Ethernet cable, you'd manage the same thing. But the Exchange approach above is the best, and unfortunately, has not been adapted by other mail systems like gmail, icloud or anything else.

Re:Undo send

[unixisc]

It's always been there in Microsoft Outlook. Go into your Sent items, go to Actions under the Message tab, and then click 'Recall this message'. It will make the attempt. If your mail server is based on Exchange, rather than Sendmail, then it will check whether the recipient has already opened it or not. If he has, you are SOL, but if he hasn't, the recall will be successful