What woes are lurking in your email inbox?

How common is email anxiety? Experts reveal results and top tips for fearful users:
—The top concern for Americans is regretting sending an email, with over 250,000 searches for "unsending emails" a month.
—Research suggests a quarter of a million American users regret sending an email every month
—Gmail is the most confusing email provider, with the most support searches relative to its monthly traffic.
Every day, 8,382 emails in America are likely sent by mistake. At least, this is what transpires from a study based on Google searches about recalling emails. Virginia is the most email-anxious state, considering they have the highest number of email-related questions per capita. Meanwhile, American users are more confused about using Gmail than any other email provider.
This is according to new research from email marketing agency InboxArmy, which evaluated 1,875 of the most popular email-related search terms on Google in every U.S. state between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. The study measures three aspects: concern basis, such as recalling or writing emails, attaching files or adding signatures; provider confusion, measuring support inquiries; and state-specific struggles, based on search volumes for all keywords within each individual state.
The emails
we dread most
America’s No. 1 email concern is recalling them. There are 251,488 monthly searches related to unsending emails. Assuming each of these searches counted as one unique user, then a quarter of a million people in America experience instant regret of sending an email every month, or 8,382 per day.
 Email signatures are the second biggest struggle. From setting them up and generating professional-looking ones to editing and managing them, automatic signatures spark 85,365 related Google searches every month.
 How to write any particular email content is America’s third most dreaded emailing concern. Across 64,626 monthly searches, 88% refer to writing out-of-office automatic replies. Many Americans are still trying to grasp the general structure of emails, with 499 Google searches related to formatting issues every month.
 Most confusing 
Of the most popular email providers, Gmail confuses American users the most, with 82,427 monthly searches for solutions on how it works. Considering its US monthly traffic is an estimated 31.6 million, Gmail sparks the most confusion with 2,609 monthly support-related searches per one million visits.
Microsoft Outlook is the second most confusing email provider in the U.S., despite also being the second most used platform in the country.
American users search for Outlook functionality questions 316,060 times a month. Relative to its traffic, this suggests that Outlook leads to 1,121 cases of confusion for every million monthly visits.
Interestingly, Americans are three times more likely to use Yahoo Mail than Microsoft’s Live Outlook, yet the latter appears to be 93 times more confusing.
 Outlook had around 282 million US visitors in March 2024, according to estimates based on SimilarWeb traffic data. This is three times less than Yahoo Mail’s traffic for the same period, which is estimated at 773 million. Still, Yahoo prompted 93 times fewer searches compared to Outlook, with just 3,406 functionality questions every month across the entire country about Yahoo, compared to Outlook’s 316,060.
In fact, Yahoo only seems to generate four functionality enquiries per one million visits. It is the second least confusing email provider for its users.
The most straightforward email provider in America is AOL. With a primarily American userbase bringing in 210 million visits every month, AOL only triggers two searches about how it works for one million visits per month.
 Volume-wise, Outlook has the most Google searches relating to its functionality. Gmail is the second most searched email provider, while Yahoo ranked third. This top three is consistent throughout every US state.