The Mac version of Outlook is finally receiving a long-awaited feature already available in Windows and web versions: the ability to recall sent emails. However, technical limitations apply.
Those familiar with email protocols know that once a message is delivered to a recipient’s server, it’s technically irreversible. True message recall, as offered by Outlook, is only feasible if both sender and recipient are part of the same Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Exchange organization, as clarified in Microsoft’s blog post.
The Mac integration mirrors existing workflows: Users select the "Recall" option from the context menu of a message in the "Sent" folder and receive a notification indicating success or failure. The recall may fail for older emails or if the recipient has already viewed the message.
Other email providers use workarounds, such as delaying send times, to simulate recalling accidentally sent emails. In such cases, the message never actually reaches the recipient’s inbox during the delay window.