14 DAY TRIAL // Rome wasn't built in a day, the saying goes, and it's certainly true for Gmail as well. Google's whole philosophy rests on building big things one baby step at a time. So the latest new feature to be introduced in Gmail may not be the biggest, but it all adds up. And for the ones that will have to use it, the new contact recover feature could prove a life saver.
The feature allows you to restore a contact that you've deleted, either by accident or you just thought you didn't need it anymore.
All contact data is now backed up for the past 30 days enabling users to revert to any point from the past month.
"There are many times in life when a do-over can come in handy. Perhaps you clicked 'Send' on an email that was better left unsaid, or 'Delete' on a contact before realizing you still needed it," Amanda Camp, Software Engineer at Gmail, explains.
"Just like Gmail lets you unsend a message, you can now have a second chance with your contacts too," she said.
"We’ve added a new feature to Google Contacts that allows you to revert your contact list and undo any mistakes made up to 30 days in the past," she announced.
There are a couple of times when the feature may come in handy and you're going to be thankful that it exists if you ever have to use.
If you like to keep your contacts nice and tidy, a bit of housekeeping goes a long way. But say you delete the wrong contact or later realize that you actually needed the information. Or even worse, an attempt to sync your contacts with your phone goes horribly wrong and you're left with an empty list.
This is where the new restore feature comes in. All you have to do is go to the Contacts section in Gmail and select "Restore contacts" from the "More actions" menu. You can then choose a time to revert to, it can be 10 minutes or a week ago. You can also select any specific time you want, as long as it's within the last 30 days, and, presto, your contacts are restored.