How to Unsend a Message in AIM Mail or AOL Mail

Concentration helps avert many a mishap, but are you always fully concentrated when writing an email; when clicking Send? I know I am not. The typical sequence of events is this: I write an email, either full of glaring nonsense or with the wrong address in the To: field; I stop to think: "ah, I'd better not send this;" I click Send, in a hopeless attempt to prove myself wrong.

Usually, after you have sent a message, there is no going back or unsending it. With AIM Mail and AOL Mail, all may not be lost, however. If the message was addressed only to AOL or AIM Mail users (typically addresses ending in "@aol.com" or "@aim.com"), you can silently remove it from the recipients' Inboxes as long as it has not yet been opened.

Unsend a Message in AIM Mail or AOL Mail

Unfortunately, unsending messages is currently not available in AIM Mail or AOL Mail. You can still check an email's status and unsend from the AOL desktop programs.

To unsend a message in AIM Mail or AOL Mail:

• Go to the Sent folder in AIM Mail or AOL Mail.
• Make sure the box in front of the message you want to unsend is checked.
  • You can also check multiple messages to take them all back at once,
• Click the Unsend button.
• Click Unsend again.

Note that you cannot unsend a message if just one of the recipients is an "internet" recipient — anybody with an email address not ending in either "@aol.com" or "@aim.com".

If you sent a message from your email client through the AIM Mail SMTP server, you can also unsend it from the web interface.