There is a way to recall that email you never meant to send.

It’s a special kind of horror. The moment you accidentally send an email you never meant to send; your stomach flips, your palms sweat. Do you send another asking them to ignore it? Do you furiously start mentally drafting the follow-up apology?

Thankfully, if you’re one of the world’s one billion (yep!) Gmail users, there’s a relatively simple way to make sure you never have to experience that tech-related trauma again.

Late last year, Gmail finally bestowed an ‘undo send’ option upon us.

There are a couple of catches: it’s only available when using your inbox via a browser (not an app), and once the email is sent it only gives you a maximum window of 30 seconds to recall it.

Still, we’ll take what we can get.

Speaking of technology-related crises…

Here’s how to enable it:

1. Log into your Gmail account and click on the cog icon in the top right-hand corner.
2. Select ‘settings’.
3. Under the general tab, you’ll see an ‘undo send’ option. Tick the box beside it.
4. Click on the dropdown box to select the ‘send cancellation period’ – you can choose between five, 10, 20 and 30 seconds.
5. Scroll the bottom of the page and hit ‘Save changes’.

From now on, once you've sent an email a small box will appear at the top of your screen that reads:  "Your message has been sent. Undo View message”.

That's when the clock starts ticking, so make those 30 seconds count, people.