For a while now, Microsoft Outlook users have enjoyed a highly popular feature: Message Recall Office 365. This feature lets users recall messages they sent through Outlook, an Exchange Online-hosted cloud email service for businesses.
Users can un-send emails, as long as the recipient also uses Outlook and hasn’t opened the messages yet.
This feature works well and provides real value. Recently, Microsoft announced it will expand Message Recall Office 365 to all Office 365 environments during the fourth quarter of 2020
The company had this to say in a recent blog post on the subject:
The Message Recall Office 365 feature is popular in Outlook for Windows, but it doesn’t always perform as expected. The recall only works if the recipient also uses Outlook, as it relies on the client.
With millions of users on Office 365 mailboxes, Microsoft can now enhance this feature by performing the recall directly in the cloud. This approach ensures the recall doesn’t depend on which email client the recipient uses. It happens in their Office 365 mailbox, and when their client syncs, the message disappears.
As part of the Message Recall Office 365 update, users will receive an aggregate message recall status report. This report helps users quickly see which messages the system successfully recalled and which ones it didn’t.
Microsoft also announced new protections against Reply-All email storms. These storms, sometimes called ‘Reply-allpocalypses,’ happen when emails with large distribution lists are sent. They can easily cause accidental denial of service, even on the most robust email servers.
Both features bring valuable improvements. Kudos to Microsoft for enhancing the system.