The Gmail service has started rolling out a new feature that adds an extra layer of security to your correspondence. Users now have the option to encode an email so that only the intended recipient can read it, meaning even Google itself won't have access to the contents.
Previously, emails in Gmail, like in most other services, were primarily protected in transit between servers. But this new option, called client-side encryption, works differently. The encoding happens right in the sender's browser before the email even reaches the internet. This means no one other than the recipient can read the text or view any attached images or documents.
The real game-changer is that this protection now also works when communicating with users on other email systems. While achieving this level of security previously required manually exchanging digital keys—a complex process impractical for everyday use—it's now much simpler. If you receive an encrypted email like this, you won't see the actual text in your inbox, just a notification. To read the message, you need to click a link and verify your identity with a one-time passcode sent to your email. After verification, a secure webpage with the message text will open.
To send a confidential email in Gmail, just click the lock icon in the compose window before you start writing and turn on the additional encryption. It's important to do this at the very beginning; if you enable protection after you've already written the text, the draft won't be saved.
For now, this feature is available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers as a specific add-on, but its full functionality is expected to roll out to all users in the future.
