On the Internet, a personal email address is a de requiter passport to gain access to any membership website. But providing an email address can invite endless spam messages we had no idea we were signing up for. Temporary, disposable emails are one way to address this problem, and we’ve covered a handful of such services before, but a recently released disposable email address service called Gliph seems to be the first to provide a temporary or cloaked email addresses that you can use on your iPhone and Android.

Free, disposable web services like Mailnator is what I’ve used because it means that the address will be used to register temporarily on a site, which I most likely won’t return to more than a couple of times. Mailnator does though provide you an alternate address to check messages coming to that address. This alternate address is cloaked by the Mailnator address you create for yourself. Well, Gliph works in a similar fashion but with a few more handy features that might be useful for some users. For one, it’s a mobile app.

How It Works

On the surface, Gliph seems pretty easy to setup and use, but in some ways it may be a little confusing because of its added features. Gliph provides you two ways to send and receive cloaked emails. It assigns you an email address like, “bolia87@cloak.gli.ph”–an address which can be seen by the recipient.

Any email responses to this address will travel through the Gliph’s services and forwarded to your real, cloaked address that they provide. You can also use Gliph to send and receive emails with other Gliph users, providing them as much or as little information about yourself as you like. You can keep your assigned Gliph email as long as you like, but if you start to get spammed, you can discard emails using that Gliph address, preventing any more emails to be forward to your disguised email address.

Claiming a Gliph

You start off by claiming a Gliph which is a setup that includes selecting 3-5 symbols you use to communicate with other Gliph users. This sort of visual email is great, but only a single combination of symbols is available to each member who signs up.

So if you choose say four pencils as your Gliph, it’s already taken. However, the possibilities are endless, and in the early stages of this service you may be able choose a combination that you can easily remember. Choose wisely, however, because the Gliph, along with your password, is also used to sign into your account, both in the mobile and online app.

My Gliph starts with the heart symbol followed by three musical notes (feel free to address me at that Gliph address) which represents my love of music. After you setup your account, you will of course need to confirm your Gliph at the cloaked (secret) address you are provided. And by the way, alternatively you can do this signup and use Gliph online.

During the setup process, in addition to being asked for your cloaked email address, you can provide personal profile information. If you plan to use use Gliph on a regular basis, go ahead and fill out all the information because you can always disable any of that information before providing it to another Gliph member.

Sending a Cloaked Email

Once you’re all set up and confirmed, you can select Cloak email address. You don’t have to go with the first address Gliph displays to you. You can keep hitting the refresh button until you get an address you like. There doesn’t seem to be a way to create your own custom address. You will probably want to add your Gliph address to your device’s Address Book.

Now your Gliph address can be used like any other email address. You might use it for Craigslist or Ebay communication or as email for registering anonymously on a website. Again, however, the recipient of your Gliph address is notified in the email that your address comes from “@cloak.gli.ph”

To send a message from your mobile device, you tap on the Cloak icon in the top left of the app. Tap on your Cloak address, and then tap on the “Send new Cloaked Email” button.

You can correspond with other other Gliph members if you know their Gliph address symbols. To invite another member, tap in the Search icon in the bottom menu bar. In the text box, tap in the symbols for that Gliph user you’re trying to reach.

Tapping on the Activity button shows all your Gliph related correspondence. You can tap on the top right Settings button to disable email notifications for when other Gliph members send a message to you.

Gliph also has a couple of video tutorials that show you how to use the app. You can get additional Cloak emails and also enable a feature to add attachments from within the Gliph app by sending out invitations to other people who sign up on Gliph.

Let us know what you think of Gliph. Was it easy for you to figure out?

For other disposable and disguise email address ideas, check out these articles:

• How To Protect Your Email and Still Subscribe To Everything
  
• Five Free Temporary Email Services To Avoid Spam
  
• 3 Ways To Instantly Create A New Email Address For Yourself