How to Send Confidential Email in Gmail

Confidential mode in Gmail is a way of sending emails that have restrictions placed on them. So if you need to send sensitive or private information to someone and you’re worried about what they might do with it. read on.

Table Of Contents

What is Confidential Mode in Gmail?
How to Send a Confidential Gmail
Changing Confidential Mode Settings in Gmail
- Remove Access to an Email
How to Reply to a Confidential Email
Summary

What is Confidential Mode in Gmail?

Emails sent using the confidential mode in Gmail can’t be printed, forwarded, downloaded or copied. These restrictions also apply to any attachments sent along with the email.

Confidential emails also have a “time to live”, or expiry date, on them. That can be set to either 1 day. 1 week, 1 month, 3 months or 5 years. And again the time to live also applies to attachments.

You can also revoke a recipients right to view the email at any time, even if the message still has time to live.

A Gmail email that has the access rights revoked. — Humm, it looks like you don’t have access to this message.

Related Guides.

How To Create A Google Account.

How To Transfer Yahoo Mail To Gmail.

How to Send a Confidential Gmail

If you wanted to send a confidential email, log into your Gmail account and begin a new email by clicking the Compose button.

Add in the recipient s email address, something on the subject line and then fill in the body of your message. All exactly the same as sending a standard email. You can even add any attachments that you want to send.

When the message is ready to go, instead of clicking on the Send button, click the Confidential Mode icon. It looks like a padlock symbol.

Toggle confidential mode symbol indicated by a callout in Gmail. — To make your emails more private, click the Confidential Mode icon.

Close up view of Confidential Mode icon in Gmail. — A close view of the Confidential Mode icon.

Set Expiration Time

By default Gmail will set an expiration time of 1 week, but you can change that by clicking on the drop down arrowhead and selecting an alternate option.

Expires in 1 week. — Accept the default of 1 week.

Set Expiration time drop down menu. — Or click the drop down menu and select another option.

Require an SMS Passcode

To further enhance the security of your email, you can require the recipient to enter a passcode before they can view the message.

Click the SMS Passcode button and click the Save button.

You’ll then need to enter the recipients phone number.

SMS passcode has been selected. — If you want to add a passcode, select SMS passcode.

Enter the recipient phone number box. Currently it's empty. — Then enter your recipients phone number.

If you don’t want to add a passcode requirement, just leave the option “No SMS Passcode” selected and click the Save button.

Changing Confidential Mode Settings in Gmail

If you change your mind about any of the confidential mode settings that you’ve chosen, you can change them.

At the bottom of the new message window, you’ll see the settings that you’ve applied.

To change any of them, just click on the Edit link.

You can also remove Confidential Mode by clicking on the X, next to the Edit link.

Edit button marked. — Click Edit to change your settings.

Remove Access to an Email

When you’ve sent an email in confidential mode in Gmail, you can remove access to it at any time. You don’t have to wait for the message to expire. You can do it immediately.

To remove access, open your Sent folder and find the confidential email that you’ve sent.

Scroll to the bottom of the message and click the Remove Access link.

Remove Access option is highlighted. — Click Remove Access.

After access has been removed the recipient will still see the message appear in their Inbox.

But when they click on it to read it, they’ll be greeted with the message “You don’t have access to this email”.

The message and any attachments to it will effectively have been deleted.

Email that the recipient doesn't have access to. — Uh Oh, access has been removed.

How to Reply to a Confidential Email

Although you can’t forward or print confidential emails, you can reply to them.

When you open a confidential email, you’ll notice that there isn’t a Replay option. There’s nothing to click on that you can use to send back answer.

To reply to a confidential email you have to return to your Inbox. From there you should be able to see the Reply button.

A confidential email is open in a seperate window. Callout reads There isn't a Reply button. — No Reply button while reading a confidential email.

Reply button indicated in Inbox. — You need to return to your Inbox and use the Reply button from there.

Summary

Try it out for yourself. Confidential email in Gmail is very effective. Not something you’ll need to use everyday, but worth knowing how to do it for those rare occasions when you need to protect your privacy.

There are a couple of things that you definitely should keep in mind.

Confidential mode emails sent using Gmail are not end to end encrypted. They could still be intercepted and your privacy compromised.
Although the emails can’t be printed or copied themselves, there’s nothing to stop someone simply taking a screenshot of the message.

How to Delete All Gmail Emails
Empty your Inbox.

How to use Burner Email Addresses
What are they? How do they work? Protect your privacy by using a burner email address.

How To Print An Email In Gmail.
Printing emails.