Rookery

Send as your Gmail

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When your Gmail or Google Workspace mail is forwarded to a Rookery inbox, your replies go from your Rookery address at first, with Reply-To your own. Connect Gmail to send and they go out as your own address instead, through Google.

Connect it

  1. In Settings → Inboxes, find the inbox that forwards from your Gmail.
  2. Click Connect Gmail to send.
  3. Google asks you to sign in. Sign in as the inbox's address: the one your mail is forwarded from.
  4. Google asks to let Rookery send email on your behalf and see your email address. Allow both.
  5. You're back in Settings, and the inbox says Your replies go as you@gmail.com, through Gmail.

If you sign in as a different Google account, Rookery says so and doesn't connect it. Sign in as the inbox's address, or change the inbox's address first.

What Rookery can and can't do

  • It can send email you write or approve in Rookery, as your address. That's the only Gmail permission it asks for.
  • It can't read your Gmail: not your inbox, not your Sent folder, not your labels or contacts. Your mail still reaches Rookery only by forwarding.
  • Google's sign-in is kept encrypted, used only to send your email, and never shown anywhere in Rookery.

What the people you write to see

  • From: your own name and address, like Maya Lee <maya@gmail.com>. Google sends it, so there's no "via" or "on behalf of" label.
  • Their reply goes straight to your Gmail, which forwards it to Rookery, and it joins the same conversation.
  • Threads stay together in their mail app as before.

The composer says Sends as maya@gmail.com through Gmail above your words, so you always know which address it goes from.

The Sent folder

The copy of each reply is in your Gmail's Sent folder, filed by Google. Rookery keeps its own record of the conversation as always. A reply's copy in Gmail may sit in Sent on its own, rather than in the Gmail thread you started from; the person you wrote to sees it threaded normally.

When Gmail can't send it

Your email is never lost. If Gmail won't take it, Rookery sends it from your Rookery address instead, with Reply-To your own, and tells you:

  • Gmail needs reconnecting: Google stopped accepting Rookery's sign-in, for example because you removed Rookery in your Google account, or changed your password. The inbox shows Reconnect Gmail, the composer says so, and the conversation notes which reply went from the Rookery address. Click Reconnect Gmail and sign in again.
  • Gmail's daily limit: Google lets an account send about 500 emails a day (about 2,000 for Google Workspace). Rookery counts what it sends through your account and warns you as you get close. Past the limit, replies go from your Rookery address until the next day.

Each of these is also recorded in Settings → Activity.

While Rookery is in testing with Google

Until Google finishes reviewing Rookery's Gmail permission, a connection lasts 7 days. After that the inbox says Gmail needs reconnecting: click Reconnect Gmail, sign in, and you're set for another week. Your replies meanwhile go from your Rookery address, never nowhere.

Shared inboxes

The connection is yours. Only you send as that Gmail; teammates in the same inbox send from the Rookery address unless they connect their own (they need to sign in to the same Google account). Settings and the composer say who sends through Gmail.

For Google Workspace admins

If your company's Google Workspace limits which apps people can connect, someone signing in may see that Rookery is blocked. To allow it, go to the Google Admin console, then Security → Access and data control → API controls → Manage third-party app access, find Rookery (or add it by its client ID: ask Rookery's support for it), and set it to Trusted. Rookery asks only for gmail.send, plus your email address to check it's the right account.

Disconnect

In Settings → Inboxes, click Disconnect Gmail… on the inbox. Rookery tells Google to forget its permission and deletes its copy of the sign-in. Replies go from your Rookery address again; forwarding isn't touched. You can also remove Rookery from your Google account at any time (Google Account → Security → Your connections to third-party apps); the inbox then shows Reconnect Gmail.

Changing the inbox's address, or disconnecting its mailbox, also ends any Gmail sending on it.