The emails in your Gmail inbox might self-destruct soon, and here’s what you should know

Gmail might be taking a cue from Snapchat soon. They’re in the midst of testing a feature in which emails self-destruct, and we’re not sure how to feel. While it has a ton of pros (a clean inbox just makes you feel better) the fear of something incredibly important self-destructing is also pretty real. Here’s what we know about it so far.

According to a report from TechCrunch, Gmail is trying hard to renovate their entire system. In the future, you may be able to mark certain emails as “confidential.” That means that you’ll be unable to copy and paste, forward, or even print the email out to anyone else. Within confidential mode, you can also set emails to expire at a set time, meaning they’ll no longer be available. It could be a week or even a few years. Adding to the email protection, you can also require those you email to confirm their identity with a passcode that’ll arrive on their phone, making it even more secure.

The email will “self-destruct” when it expires, meaning that those it was sent to will no longer have access to it. And because this will only affect emails that users have set to destruct, your emails in general will be safe.

We also don’t know if and when we’ll be getting this feature.

"Google said that the new Gmail is going to come out in a few weeks," TechCrunch reported. "Confidential emails could be released at the same time or at a later date."

Now that we know what they mean by “self-destruct,” we think this could actually be a genius feature. (Some politicians probably agree.) What do you think?