How to Send Confidential Emails or Self-Destructing Emails on Gmail

With new design, Google also rolled out confidential emails option that aims to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. You can use confidential mode for sending confidential information. The email will have an expiration date decided by you and message will not be available after the expiration time. Recipients of the confidential message will also not have any option to forward, copy, print or download.

The only thing Google cannot control is taking the screenshot of the email. So, be careful while sharing photos.

If you are not sure how to send confidential emails on Gmail, I will explain steps in this article.

Send Confidential Emails That Self-destruct After Expiry Time

Send Confidential Emails on Gmail for Web

Login to Gmail web and click on Compose button. Now in the compose box, you will see a lock/clock icon in the bottom toolbar.

Click on that and it will open the Confidential Email settings window to set the expiration and passcode setting.

After adding these things, you will see a notification at the base of email content notifying about the expiration of this message.

Now you can compose the emails normally and and send this to any of your contacts. If the recipient is Gmail, the email will land in regular inbox. Otherwise, the email will give the link to open the email in a secure Gmail page.

On recipient side, it will be something like the screenshots below.

Other person will be asked to verify via OTP if you have enabled that option. This email content will be available only until the expiration.

Send Confidential Emails on Gmail for Android

Process is similar on the Android as well. Open the Gmail app and start composing a new email. Now tap on three vertical dot icon at the top right side.

It will open the Confidential Settings page to set the expiration and passcode settings. Change values and then compose the email normally.

On recipient side, it works same as I mentioned in earlier.

Remove access early

If you want to remove access before the expiration time, you can do that by following these steps. These access work on all the devices.

Go to Sent. Here, open the confidential email you sent and tao Remove access.

Final Words

Confidential emails now work for web and mobile devices across the globe. So, you can try this now to send confidential data. The email will expire after the time you have mentioned for expiration. The email content will not be available after that time. I recommend you to set the SMS passcode option and add your number to receive the passcode. So, other person will ask you to tell the passcode for opening the email.