Some messages are meant to be kept private. The longer they sit in your inbox, the more likely they are to end up in the wrong place or in front of the wrong eyes. Gmail has a solution that sounds like something straight out of a classic spy movie: self-destructing messages. Here’s how to do it.

The self-destructing email feature is available in both the Gmail mobile app and the web interface. Here's how to create one in the browser-based Gmail.

Open your browser and sign in to Gmail.

Select Compose and start writing a message as you normally would.