Email is a method of exchanging messages between people using electronic devices. It is one of the most popular universal means of communicating with other people. Nowadays almost everyone uses Email for official as well as personal use. But email is prone to the disclosure of information. Most emails are currently transmitted in the clear (not encrypted) form. By means of some available tools, persons other than the designated recipients can read the email contents. So today we are here to tell you How to Send Encrypted Email On Android so that the email which you are sending can be secured from any kind of smartphone hacking.
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How to Send Encrypted Email On Android
Email encryption involves encrypting, or disguising, the content of email messages in order to protect potentially sensitive information from being read by anyone other than intended recipients. We will recommend that every user should encrypt their important emails.
Method1: Send Encrypted Email Using CryptMax
CryptMax is a simple, minimalistic, and user-friendly app that allows you to encrypt text using a secret key into a ciphertext. The best thing about this app is that it doesn’t force you to use its own email app as it is just a notepad that encrypts everything which you type into it. You can then copy-paste the information you have encrypted in the app into any of your favorite email apps.
Step1: Firstly download and install CryptMax on your Android device.
Step2: Now open the app, type the message that you want to encrypt and enter the password for it and tap on ‘Encrypt’ that will convert your text into an encrypted code.
Step3: Once encryption is done, tap ‘Copy’ and now you can go to any of the email apps via which you want to send the message. There long-tap in the body area of the message, then tap ‘Paste’.
Step4: Now send the encrypted text to the intended receiver. The receiver must have password and CryptMax app to read the message.
Step5: The receiver needs to copy-paste the text into the CryptMax and use your password to read the message.
NOTE: You should make this password secure because if someone manages to break this, they’ll be able to decrypt your message.
Method2: Send Encrypted Email Using OpenKeyChain and K-9 Mail
Step1: Firstly you need to download and install OpenKeyChain(does the actual encryption) and K-9 Mail(e-mail app that supports encryption).
Step2: Open K-9 Mail and enter your e-mail address and password, the rest process will be done automatically.
Step3: Now we need to enable encryption in K-9 Mail app. Tap on your account and press the menu icon (three dots) in the bottom right of the screen. Go to Settings > Account settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select ‘Cryptography’. Select ‘OpenPGP Provider’ and then select ‘OpenKeychain’ from the list.
Step4: Now, you need to Set-up encryption. You need to open the OpenKeychain app, then select ‘Create my key’. Follow the steps on the screen.
Step5: Make sure you choose a strong password. The password will encrypt the key which you will use to decrypt your email. Also, don’t forget this password, there is no way to reset it.
Step6: If you want to send an encrypted email, you must have a public key to access it later. I suggest you check it is valid or not. It’s always better to meet person face-to-face to verify public key. If the second person also uses OpenKeyChain, use the following methods
- We don’t have internet access
- The other person doesn’t use OpenKeychain
Step7: You can also share your public/private key using NFC. This feature is available on Android devices but at this time, very few mobiles have this feature. If the second person doesn’t have NFC, you will get an error and then you can share those keys via EMAIL.
Step8: Now, its time to send your first encrypted email with K-9 Mail. If you don’t have the second person’s key, don’t check “encrypt” option at the time of sending an email.
When you get the email, just tap on ‘show attachments’ and open with OpenkeyChain.
Now, you will get a long text paragraph in which the only alphanumerics. You can’t read even a single word without a key.
Step9: To read the complete guide with pictures, please read, Encrypted Email on Android on GitHub. Here, you will get a complete tutorial with screenshots that help a lot to understand easily.
Final Words on How To Send Encrypted Email on Android Phone
So, guys, these are the two methods with the help of which you can secure your emails. Encryption of emails makes it hard for the hackers to break into the data inside it. So if, you are sending a very confidential email then its necessary to encrypt the data within it. So just try out any of the above methods and for any query do comment below.
