The world may have transitioned to instant messaging to relay information, but when it comes to sending critical communications, companies and individuals still prefer emails. Google has been upgrading its Gmail platform through the years, but one of the most amazing features that they have intoduced in recent times, is ‘Confidential Mode’.
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What is Confidential Mode on Gmail?
In simple english, confidential mode allows you to send emails to the receiver, but they can only view it once. The content cannot be copied, downloaded or even forwarded. Think of messages in Mission Impossible, where they self destruct. This mode is something akin to that, with the exception that in this case, confidential mode only makes the email go away.
How to send a confidential email on Gmail
Step 1. On your Computer or Laptop, login to your Gmail account using the appropriate credentials.
Step 2. In order to send emails in confidential mode, the first thing we need to do is start composing the email. Click on the ‘Compose’ button on the top left hand side of the home screen.
Step 3. On the compose email window, at the very bottom, you will see a lock icon. Click on that to enable confidential mode.
Step 4. Now, you will see the confidential mode settings window pop up. Here, you have the following options –
- Set Expiration – As mentioned earlier, emails sent in confidential mode do not last in the recipient’s inbox forever. This is because confidential mode emails come with an expiration term, which the sender can set.
- Passcode – If you want to add another layer of mystery, there is an option where the receiver can get a passcode on their phone. The same passcode must be entered in order to view the mail. But, this is totally up to the sender to decide whether or not they want to enable a passcode.
Step 5. Click on the ‘Save’ button and you are now done with the setup. All you have to do is compose your email as usual, and hit the send button. Your confidential email will be sent.
Confidential mode is a really cool and sometimes useful feature that, frankly, we are still yet to find a plausible use case for. Nonetheless, if there is some mission critical documents that you want to send to your colleagues for their eyes only, you can use this feature and ensure that the content cannot be redistributed.
