A new feature deployed by Google that tells Gmail users when they’re interacting with an unencrypted email has significantly increased the number of providers offering that level of security, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday.
The feature, which was introduced in early February, informs users of when they’re receiving a message that wasn’t sent using encryption or if they’re sending a message to someone whose email client will not support it. In the 44 days since Google introduced the function, the company reported, the amount of inbound mail sent over an encrypted connection increased by 25 percent.
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End-to-end encryption prevents messages from being read by hackers or snooping governments while in transit.
In comments to the Verge, the company suggested that most of that growth came from providers updating their clients to avoid getting flagged by Google. A smaller proportion may have come from users changing email providers.
“Given the relative ease of implementing encryption and its significant benefits for users, we expect to see this progress continue,” Google wrote in its post on the findings.
The company also took the opportunity to highlight a couple of new security measures that it will be rolling out. Those measures include a new warning message for users who click on email links that are deemed potentially hazardous, and a new warning page for users who are subjected to state-sponsored hacking attempts.
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Google has warned users of state-backed cyberattacks since 2012, but the new page will go a step farther by telling users what to do about it. The measure keeps Google at the forefront of developments in the area: Facebook and Yahoo both announced just last that they were going to notify users in a manner similar to Google.
