Some communications I send require additional security, also known as encryptionwhat most Android email clients cannot deliver. Encryption ensures that emails I send to specific recipients can only be read by those who have a matching key to decrypt the email content.

You’ll need a third-party app for this level of security on Android. For email encryption, you’ll need another email client, as Gmail won’t do this. I prefer Thunderbird on Android because it’s a great email client, it works with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and it’s an open source application.

Also: The Thunderbird email client has finally landed on Android, and it was worth the wait

The app I chose for encryption on Android is Open key ring. This tool makes it easy to add encryption to Android.

Let me show you how it works.

Installing OpenKeychain

What you will need: The only thing you will need is an Android device (phone or tablet) and a Google account. That’s it. Let’s do some encryption magic.

Create your first key

The next step is to create your first key. Here’s how.

1. Open the newly installed app

Swipe up on your Home screen to open the app drawer. Scroll down until you find OpenKeychain and tap the launcher.

2. Create your key

In the main window, tap Create my key. You will then have to go through a simple wizard which will ask you:

• Type your name (or a nickname)
• Add email for key
• Optionally enable the key so that it is accessible via key servers

Once you have completed the steps above, tap Create Key at the bottom right.

One of the benefits of OpenKeychain is that it’s easy to share your public key (remember that a key is a pair with a private key and a public key). After creating your key, you can tap enter, where you will see the share and copy options.

Also: 3 Ways to Stop Android Apps Running in the Background – and Why I Always Do It

For other people to send you an encrypted email, they will need to send you their public key; In order for you to send others an encrypted email, you will need to send them your public key.

With OpenKeychain, you can easily import keys (from a file) by tapping the + button on the main page and tapping “Import from file”.

Adding encryption to Thunderbird for Android

Thunderbird isn’t the only Android email app that supports encryption, but it’s the one I use, so we’ll work with that tool. You can install Thunderbird for Android from Google Play Store.

1. Open Thunderbird Settings

After installing Thunderbird and adding your email account, tap the menu button in the upper left corner, then tap the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar. From the list of email accounts, tap the one you want to use encryption with.

2. Go to “End-to-end encryption”

At the bottom of the Account Settings page, tap End-to-End Encryption.

3. Enable OpenPGP support

On the “End-to-end encryption” page, make sure “Enable OpenPGP support” is enabled by pressing the Power slider until it is in the On position.

4. Select your key

Under the Enable entry, tap the “Key Usage” line, then, when prompted, select the key you want to use for encryption (this will be the key you created in OpenKeychain).

Return to the main Thunderbird window now that you’ve added PGP support. Hopefully at this point you have imported a PGP key from a recipient who will receive an encrypted email from you. Tap the Compose button, then tap the menu button at the top right (three vertical dots).

In this menu, tap Enable encryption. Once you’ve done that, enter the recipient’s email address (for which you added the PGP key) and the lock icon should turn green, meaning the email is encrypted. You can now enter your email and send it.

Also: 3 Ways to Stop Android Apps Running in the Background – and Why I Always Do It

Remember that the recipient’s email client must also support encryption. Otherwise, they will have to save the encrypted attachment and decrypt it manually.

And there you have it: you’ve just added encryption to Android for an extra layer of security.