A NEW feature in Gmail that lets you send self destructing emails is now available to everyone and it’s well worth checking out.

In May this year Google announced a raft of new features in a redesign of its popular e-mail platform, used by more than 1.4 billion people worldwide.

Many of the changes were focused on bolstering privacy and giving users more control over the emails they send.

A “confidential mode” now lets you send messages with expiration dates and block them from being forwarded, copied, downloaded or printed. Of course people could still take a screenshot of the email but the new feature is supposed to prevent people from accidentally forwarding on the email to other people.

A new selfdestructing timer feature means you can make an e-mail expire in the recipient’s inbox and delete itself. If you’re sending a confidential or particularly salacious e-mail, this feature is a must.

Here’s how to do it.

When you go to compose an email, look for the tiny lock with a clock on it among the icons at the bottom of the text box.

Choose how long you want the email to sit before it self destructs. You can choose from options such as one day, one week, one month and up to five years.

The countdown starts right when you send it, not when the recipient opens it. So if you’re setting the message to expire in 24 hours, you will want to be sure they are going to check their emails regularly enough to see it.

It might seem like an odd feature, but it’s easy to see how it could be welcomed by journalists dealing with confidential sources, corporate execs sharing trade secrets over email, or perhaps even those looking to arrange an adulterous meeting.

As an extra level of security, senders can also require that a code delivered by text message be entered before an email can be viewed by the recipient.

As well as adding a self-destruction timer, messages can now be revoked after being sent.

If you want to revoke access sooner, you can do that by opening Gmail, selecting “Sent”, opening the confidential email you just sent and then selecting “remove access”.

Screenshot is still a thing, so in the end it's useless feature.