You might want to share secret information with someone but you want to be sure it doesn’t stay with them for long. Well just as the disappearing messages feature on popular messaging platforms, you can have something similar but for emails. Let’s take a look at the way on how to add expiration dates to emails in Gmail using the confidential mode.
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How to add expiration dates to emails for Windows and Mac.
With Gmail’s confidential mode feature, you can add an expiration date to an email where the recipient can only view it until the set expiration date.
Log in to your Gmail account using a browser of your choice on Windows 10 or Mac.
Click Compose in the top left corner of the window.
In the email composition window, enter the recipient’s email address, the subject of the email and the content of the email.
At the bottom of the composition window, click the lock button that has a clock in front of it. This is the confidential mode icon.
Once you’ve clicked there, the confidential mode window will appear. In the “Set Expiration” section, click the down arrow to display a list of different expiration times.
The expiration times can range from one day to five years. Select the expiration period you want.
The expiration date will now appear at the right of the selected time. In addition, you can also require a passcode. When you choose “No SMS Passcode” the recipient can open the email immediately while when you choose “SMS Passcode” the recipient will be required to enter a password first that they’ll receive via SMS.
If you choose the “SMS Passcode” option, you need to enter the recipient’s number first.
When you are all done, click “Save.“
The email will now have a set expiration date. A message will appear at the bottom of your email confirming this. Click “Send” to send the email.
If you want to remove access to the email before the set expiration date, click “Sent” in the left-hand pane, then select the message with the expiration date from the list of emails.
At the bottom of the email, click “Remove Access.” Now the recipient can no longer access the email.
How to add expiration dates to emails for iOS and Android.
To add an expiration date, log in to your Gmail account on your phone. Tap “Compose” in the bottom-right corner.
Enter the recipient’s email address, the subject of the email, and the content of the email.
Once that is done, tap the three horizontal dots for iOS and three vertical dots for Android in the top-right corner of the screen.
In the menu, you’ll see “Confidential mode.”
In the “Set Expiration” section, tap the “Expires in…“
You’ll get different options for a number of expiration times ranging from 1 day to 5 years. You can choose the one that you want.
You can also set the passcode just like for the desktop version.
Once the expiration date is now set, tap “Send” to send the email.
If you want to remove access to the email before the expiration date, tap the three-line menu icon in the top-left corner of the “Mail” tab.
Tap Sent.
Select the email with the expiration date to open it, and at the bottom of your email, tap Remove Access.
The recipient will no longer be able to open the email.