Send self

Google overhauled the web version of Gmail this past spring, adding tons of new features and a splashy new look. One of the new tools that new Gmail introduced was confidential mode, which lets you set an expiration date or revoke access for sensitive emails that the recipient also can’t forward, copy, print or download. Now, you can send such self-destructing emails from the Gmail app. Here’s how it works.


Now playing:
Watch this:

Use the Gmail app to send confidential emails

2:22

Sending and receiving confidential Gmail messages

To send a confidential email, open the Gmail app and tap the red compose button like you normally do but then tap the triple-dot button in the top right and then tap Confidential mode.

gmail-confidential-modegmail-confidential-mode

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

With Confidential mode, you’ve got two options: set an expiration date and password protection.

The expiration date is more like an expiration period. You can set your confidential email to expire in one day, one week, one month, three months or five years.

gmail-set-date-and-passcodegmail-set-date-and-passcode

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

For password protection, you’ve got two options: Standard and SMS passcode.

Standard will allow Gmail recipients to see the contents of your confidential email right in the body of the email without a passcode. For other email clients, they will get a link in the body of the email that will then email them a passcode to open your confidential email.

If you choose SMS passcode, you will need to include a phone number when you send your confidential email, and then all recipients — Gmail or otherwise — will receive a text with the passcode needed to open your message.

With any confidential email, a box below your message alerts the recipient that the message will expire on a certain date and that options to forward, download or copy the email’s contents and attachments are disabled.

gmail-confidential-messagegmail-confidential-message

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Revoke access

You don’t need to wait until the expiration date to cut off access to a confidential email that you sent. Just head to your Sent folder in the Gmail app, open a confidential email and tap the big, blue Remove access button. The email message will remain in your recipient’s inbox, but they will no longer be able to see its contents. If you change your mind about revoking an email, find it again in your Sent folder and click the big, blue Renew access button.

gmail-revoke-accessgmail-revoke-access

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Beware the screenshot

As with all things on the internet, you are never 100-percent safe. While a confidential Gmail message prevents recipients from forwarding, downloading and copying your message and its attachments, it can’t stop them from taking screenshots or photos of your messages and attachments.

Check Also

8 New Google Products We Expect to See This Year

Google’s device line could end up having a particularly important moment in 2023. The company usually announces new Pixel products throughout the year. Google is expected to release its first foldable phone this year, however, which would directly compete with Samsung’s proven line of Galaxy Z Fold devices. Google also introduced its own ChatGPT rival, …

Send self

kaboom-pic.jpgEnlarge Image

Jason Cipriani/CNET

Ephemeral messages weren’t a thing until Snapchat made them one. Now everyone wants to send messages that disappear after a set amount of time.

The problem, however, is that each system requires users on both the sending and receiving ends of the solution to install and setup a new app.

Kaboom, on the other hand, is a free app that only requires those who want to send self-destructing messages to download the app. Once downloaded, you can send text and picture messages, complete with a countdown timer that dictates when the message will disappear forever. Not sure how long you want a message to remain active? You can also set a message to expire after a number of views.

kaboom.jpgkaboom.jpgEnlarge Image

Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Once you create an account, you can send messages across Twitter, Facebook, text messages or however you link. A Kaboom link is what’s actually shared, so it’s probably easier to say: If you can post a link to the service, it’ll work.

The company behind the app, Anchor Free, claims the disappearing act also includes deleting the content from its servers once the message expires. You can download the app for free for either iOS or Android.

Check Also

14 Hidden iPhone Features You Should Really Know About

It’s been over half a year since iOS 16 was released to the general public, yet there …

Send self

dmail-promo.jpg

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Wish you hadn’t just hit send on a email? Gmail’s Undo Send feature gives you 30 seconds to put a stop to a regrettable email. Really, all it does delay the sending of any email — up to 30 seconds. Chrome extension Dmail provides an alternate way to pull back an email, though it doesn’t cover all of your tracks.

Dmail adds two items to your Gmail account. First, it adds a line to the Compose window with a toggle switch to enable or disable the extension and, if enabled, a time in the future to destroy the email: Never, In 1 hour, In 1 day or In 1 week. The second item lets you destroy any email you sent previously with Dmail. Click All Dmails at the top of your Gmail inbox to view a list or your emails sent with Dmail, any of which you can open and hit a Revoke Email button.

An email revoked by either method does not erase all evidence of your message. The email will remain in the recipient’s inbox, but the message’s content will now be encrypted and unreadable. (Or more accurately stated, the encryption key will be revoked for the already encrypted email.) The subject line of a revoked email, however, remains unchanged and very readable, which means an angry email with an ALL CAPS subject line could still cause you trouble.

Recipients do not need to have Dmail installed to read emails. In place of the content of your email, they will see a line about receiving a secure message via Dmail with a View Message button that opens your email in a Chrome tab. Recipients with Dmail, however, can read Dmails right from within Gmail.

While Dmail lets you prevent someone reading an email you sent and gives you up to a week to so automatically, it doesn’t erase all evidence, making it better suited for sending the code to a lock or another bit of sensitive information you don’t want hanging around forever in someone’s inbox as opposed to attempting to take back a hastily worded, ill-tempered email.

Check Also

14 Hidden iPhone Features You Should Really Know About

It’s been over half a year since iOS 16 was released to the general public, yet there …

Send self

xpire-promo.jpg

Matt Elliott/CNET

Confession time: I am terrible at Twitter. I apologize to anyone who has attempted to contact me via a tweet. I’m slightly less terrible at Facebook, where I do check in regularly and post occasionally. With Twitter, however, I feel like I always arrive in the middle of a conversation and rarely summon the effort required to comb through the onslaught on information in order to locate the few tweets that have meaning to me. I know, I could adjust those whom I follow to create a better feed, but instead I have basically decided to opt out of Twitter.

Perhaps if more people on Twitter used Xpire, I’d come around more. Xpire is a free iPhone app that lets you schedule self-destructing tweets as well as Facebook and Tumblr posts. After all, a tweet along the lines of “I’m at the mall, what’s poppin’?” does not need to live on for future generations. Or even the next day.

After launching Xpire for the first time and connecting it to your social media profiles, tap the speech bubble button in the upper-right corner to open the compose window. When writing a post, you’ll see a character counter for tweets, a button to attach a photo, and a Friends button to select your Facebook audience.

xpire-in-action.pngxpire-in-action.png

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

With your post composed, tap the Next button to select how long until Xpire removes the post. You can schedule a post to stick around for one minute or up to one year, and there is also an option to have it last forever, should you get in the habit of using Xpire for both temporary and permanent posts. After selecting an expiration date, tap the Next button again and select which of your social media accounts to send it to.

Xpire offers a few other features for Twitter accounts. It will rate your Twitter profile, giving you a letter grade for the amount of potentially risky content you share on Twitter. There is also a button to delete all of your tweets, but if I’m reading it right, it’ll delete only your 3,200 most recent tweets because that’s the limit to what the app can crawl through. You can also view the tweets you have set to expire to see how much time is remaining on each and adjust the timing as necessary.

Via Lifehacker.

Check Also

8 New Google Products We Expect to See This Year

Google’s device line could end up having a particularly important moment in 2023. The company …

Leave a Reply

© 2024 News Today
External links are provided for reference purposes. News Today is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.