In our previous tutorials, we had covered the methods to delay sending an email in Outlook 2016, how to add a digital signature to Outlook but we missed an important development – the Recall feature in Outlook. The feature recalls and replaces an email message that you sent accidentally or unintentionally. However, the feature is available only for Windows clients. Outlook 2016 for other platforms such Mac do not support this feature.
Recall Email Message in Microsoft Outlook
Reasons for exercising this option can be many and range from an embarrassing typo to anger, only to be regretted later. Whatever the case is, you can undo the ‘Send’ option in Outlook 2016/2013/2010. Here’s how to recall an email!
Open Outlook 2016 and from the folder pane, choose the Sent Items folder.
Next, open the message that you want to recall. double-click to open it.
Now, under the Message tab, choose Actions > Recall This Message.
A new box will open. Click Delete unread copies of this message or Delete unread copies and replace with a new message.
Compose a new message or add something more to the same message, missing earlier.
Please note that if you do not see the ‘Recall This Message’ dialog in your Outlook 2016 account, you probably don’t have an Exchange account.
It is important to bear in mind that the success or failure of a message recall depends on the recipients’ settings in Outlook. Consider the following scenario to understand this concept better.
Suppose you want to send a message to someone you know but find that the message is incomplete or missing something important. What do you do? Simple, recall the original message and replace it with a new one.
Under such a scenario, both the original message and the recall message are pushed to the recipient’s Inbox and if ‘Automatically process requests and responses to meeting requests and polls’ checkbox under ‘Tracking’ option is selected by the recipient then, the original message is deleted and the recipient is informed that the sender has deleted the message from his or her mailbox.
Similarly, if the same checkbox has no checkmark against it, then one of the following things can occur on the recipient’s computer,
- The original message gets deleted, and the recipient is informed that you, the sender, have deleted the message from their mailbox (If the recipient opens the recall message first)
- If the recipient opens the original message first, the recall fails, and both the original and recall messages are available for the recipient’s view.
Message Recall is available after you click Send and is available only if the recipient has an Exchange account within the same organization.
