Gmail's Confidential Mode Comes to Android, iOS

While Gmail got a huge redesign earlier this year, many features were noticed as missing on the Android and iOS apps. Now, Gmail has introduced the Confidential Mode for mobile users giving them more functionality. This mode will allow user to send emails to others that will self-destruct after a point of time. This feature has arrived for all Android and iOS users, and you don't need to update your app to see this mode because Google is switching it on gradually through a server-side update.

Confidential Mode arrived with the new Gmail in April this year, and Android and iOS users are finally getting it. This mode, available while composing an email, prevents the recipient from forwarding, copying/ pasting, downloading, and printing the content in the email. For Gmail users, it shows up as a normal email, but for non-Gmail recipients, it shows up as a link that opens up in a secure portal. In both cases the security measures you set will be in force. As mentioned, you can set an expiration date that will automatically delete the email after that time is completed. You can set the time period to 1 day, 1 week, and up to 5 years. Recipient verification is also available in Confidential Mode, which allows for standard or 2-factor SMS passcode verification as well. More details are available on the company's support page.

In Gmail Android and iOS apps, it works in the similar manner. Just start composing an email, and tap on the overflow menu to see a new option called Confidential Mode. Once you tap on this, Gmail will ask you to choose an expiration date, and whether an SMS code be used for verification or not. Earlier this month, Gmail for Android also received a new option to turn off 'Conversation view', in which multiple emails are combined under one thread.