Why Does ‘Unsend’ Even Exist?
I really have to wonder, why does ‘unsend’ even exist? Granted, it would be a really useful function. I can’t count how many times I’ve sent an email, immediately realized there was something majorly or minorly wrong before the percipient gets it, and wanted to call it back. I’ve even tried to use the ‘unsend’ feature before. However, it’s never, never worked. Never.
Why? Because unsend only works before your email server actually transmits the message. Once the recipient server has it, it’s gone (unless both senders and receivers both have an Exchange server, which is apparently quite rare). Unsend can do nothing. If so, why have it? Your server has the message at most for a millisecond before it goes. The window for unsend is so tiny that the command might as well not be there.
I do see this as a useful function. I wish this would have been implemented such that the recipient server would let you delete an email you had sent but which had not yet been received by the recipient. This could actually give you a window, and could actually be useful.
Granted, I realize the potential for misuse in this. Email generally travels through many computers unprotected. If this worked this way, surely someone would figure out an exploit to delete unread messages from servers that he or she hadn’t actually sent. Still, perhaps there could be some kind of encrypted checksum or some such thing that secured who could order a delete? Seems like we could at least make this as secure as any of our computer systems really are, which is of course not perfect. And, people can always just figure out how to get into accounts and delete email normally if that’s what they’re really after.
I’m just saying, either implement the feature in this way or don’t bother at all. The current implementation just gives you hope for a moment that all is not lost…when it really is. You get to feel the hammer fall twice, first when you realize your mistake and then again when you realize that unsend can’t save you after all.
