Now that iOS 16 lets you unsend emails in Mail, you can save yourself unnecessary embarrassment by remembering a message that’s incomplete, ill-considered, or riddled with typos.
But the window to retrieve a message is narrow, at most 30 seconds, so you’d better know exactly how to cancel sending an email in iOS 16 Mail before you install Apple’s latest iPhone software update.
There’s more to unsending an email on your iPhone than simply touching a button. You can also set how long you want a delay before a message is sent, or you can turn off the unsent email feature entirely. It’s simply a matter of going into the Settings app and making the right settings.
Here’s everything you need to know about unsending and emailing in iOS 16 Mail, including the settings you need to adjust to change how long you have to tap unsend.
How to adjust the undo send delay for the mail app
With iOS 16, the Undo Send feature is on by default, though you only have 10 seconds to prevent that message from being sent. If the delay is too small, you can adjust the allotted time. Here’s how to do it.
1. Go to Settings and select Mail.
2. Scroll down on the next screen and select Undo delayed delivery. (It’s at the bottom of the Mail Settings screen.)
3. You will see a list of time options with 10 seconds already selected. you can adjust the time to 20 or 30 seconds, which extends the amount of time you have to unsend an email in iOS 16 Mail. Selecting Off will disable the unsend option.
How to unsend an email in iOS 16 Mail
Now you’re ready to unsend an email in iOS 16 Mail (assuming you haven’t selected Off).
1. When you tap the Send button on a composed message, you will immediately return to your inbox screen. At the bottom of the screen, you will see a Undo Submit domain. Tap Undo Send to get your email back.
2. If you have successfully retrieved your email, you will return to the email draft, where you can make changes or discard the draft entirely.
The Undo Send command appears at the bottom of the inbox screen for as long as you’ve configured Undo Delayed Send in Settings.
And that’s all there is to it. Canceling sending email is one of the many changes iOS 16 Mail introduces, including the ability to send scheduled emails.
Messages also get the Unsend treatment in iOS 16, as the software update lets you unsend text messages. You can also edit text messages in iOS 16 Messages, with a longer window to edit or unsend texts than you get when unsending emails in iOS 16 Mail.
Want more tips and tricks for iOS 16? We can show you how to share tab groups in iOS 16 Safari and how to copy text from videos using Live Text. We can also show you how to customize your lock screen in iOS 16 with various widgets.
