How to use Confidential Mode in your Gmail mobile app? [A Definitive Guide]

By Abhinav Girdhar | Last Updated on November 19th, 2020 5:31 pm

App Builder Appy Pie: It is only recently that Google released a confidential mode for the desktop version of Gmail and it has emerged as an extremely important aspect and feature for several users. This feature makes it possible for you to compose a mail to include an expiration date. This means that you can set a date for any sensitive email that you are going to send out and, on that date, the email would self-destruct from the recipient’s mail inbox. This way you would not have to worry that the sensitive information would be sitting in their inbox, vulnerable and unprotected. This can be a great way to grant you some control over the details or information about your company or anything else pertaining to your company.

Through a recent move which is quite fortunate for the users, this feature would now be available to the mobile Gmail users as well! This feature is pretty easy to use and is enabled by default in the settings, which means it is ready to be used by you at any time. Here’s a walkthrough of the entire process of sending an email using the Confidential Mode through the Gmail Mobile App. The walkthrough is for Android Pie, running on an Essential PH-1.

You Need

All you need is the most recent Gmail update dated 22nd August 2018.

Compose (in Confidential Mode)

Once you open the Gmail app, start composing your email in the usual manner. While composing the email, tap on the menu button on the top right corner and you would see a new option in the drop down – Confidential Mode.

Tap on Confidential Mode and a new window would appear.

Now, in this Confidential Mode window, you have two different actions that you may take:

• Set an expiration date for the email
• Make provision for an SMS passcode to open the email

After setting your options, tap ‘Save’ button, continue composing your email and send it off. When you set the option for SMS Passcode, you would not find any option to add the phone number for the SMS. This is taken care of when you are trying to send out the mail. A pop up would appear on the mobile screen asking for ‘Missing Information’. You can tap on ‘Add Missing Information’ and then receive a prompt to add the phone number for the recipient.

Once you have entered the phone number and tap ‘Done’ then tap ‘Send’ and it will go through.

So now when the recipient tries to view the email, they would be prompted to tap on ‘Send Passcode’ so that they can receive the SMS passcode which can then be used to view the email.

And, you’re done!

This is all that is needed to use Confidential Mode on your Gmail Mobile App. Easy to use, and great for protecting your sensitive data while offering you peace of mind when it comes to keeping your information protected, this new Confidential Mode is sure to be a hit among the Gmail mobile users!