Now you can send Gmail that will self-destruct
‘Confidential mode’ one of several new features
Gmail is getting its first major update since 2011, with tools aimed at businesses to help them keep hushhush information secure. But everybody will be able to access the new Gmail that starts to gradually become available on Wednesday.
Here are six of the main features, some available right away, others coming in the weeks ahead:
❚ Confidential mode: As the name of the feature suggests, this mode lets you send and, if need be, revoke messages that house sensitive information by adding expiration dates to such messages. After clicking on an icon that resembles a clock, you can set the expiration at one day, one week, one month, three months or — you really want it to expire after such a long time? — five years.
Recipients of confidential-mode messages won’t be able to forward, copy/paste, download or print the contents. As an added security measure, you can require a recipient to authenticate through a text message before they can even view the email. That might protect data even if the recipient’s email account has been hijacked.
❚ Redesigned security notifications: Google flags potentially dangerous emails with bolder notifications and warnings to prevent you from clicking on risky missives.
❚ Nudging: This artificial intelligence-powered feature reminds you to reply to emails that may have slipped through the cracks or to follow up on some of the messages you may have sent. Such messages show up at the top of your Inbox. According to Google research, Nudging prevents 8% of G Suite businesses from dropping the ball on emails each week.
❚ Smart reply: Google actually launched the Smart Reply feature — three suggested replies based on the contents of the message you received — last year for its mobile apps. The latest update to Gmail brings this timesaving feature to the Web version.
❚ High-priority notifications:
You’ll only be notified of important messages. And Google says that Gmail can also recommend when to unsubscribe from mailing lists, based on such factors as how many emails you get from a sender and how many of them you actually read.
❚ Snooze: You can hover over a message in your Inbox and click on the snooze icon that appears to put off reading the message until another time or date.
Google says users save upwards of opening 100 million emails per month by reducing the need to repeatedly open the same emails.
How will the new Gmail be received?
Alan Lepofsky, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, says the changes to Gmail are welcome, even if “these new features are more incremental than innovative.”
Consumers can opt-in through Gmail settings; the more than 4 million businesses that subscribe to Google’s cloud-based G Suite collaboration and productivity apps might have to wait for a company administrator to turn on the new Gmail.