How to add a Google Group

Follow these instructions to add your Google Group to a shared inbox in Front. A Google Group is a free mail option that Google provides to companies who want to easily distribute mail sent to a single address to a group or team of people. 

• Google Groups are set up using email forwarding so Front will only have access to emails moving forward. No historical emails will be imported to Front as Google does not yet provide a Google Group API to access or import those emails.

• All historic Google Group emails will reside in individual teammate Gmail accounts, which Front can import history from.

• Because a Front inbox is collaborative, team members will have access to all emails imported from the Google group. We recommend removing any individual members of a Google Group who will be joining your Front team. To review how to do this, see the steps below.

• If a team member is not removed from or unsubscribed from the Google Group prior to activating Front, they will receive a duplicate copy of every email that comes into the Google group-- one in the Front shared inbox, and one in their personal Front inbox. 

Tip: If you want to retain a record of all messages sent from your Google address, consider using a Gmail account instead of a Google Group. When messages are sent from Front using a Gmail account, those sent messages will be logged in Gmail. 

• Front access: The person who adds the Google Group needs to be a Front administrator.

• Google access: You need to have a Google role that allows access to Groups to be able to complete the setup - Super Admin or Groups Admin.

• Google Group settings: Make sure your Google Group access settings are set to the following-

  • Allow external members: On

  • Who can post: Anyone on the web

  • Labels: Uncheck the Security label. See details here.

Step 1

In Front, click the gear icon on the top right, then click the Company settings tab.

Step 2

Click on Inboxes in the left menu and create a new shared inbox.

Step 3

Click Channels on the left menu, then click the Connect a channel button. Choose Google from the channel menu, then select Google Group. Click Continue.

Step 4

Enter the email address for your channel. Click Continue.

Step 5

Select the inbox to connect to your channel, then click Save changes. All messages from your channel will route to this inbox by default.

Step 6

Copy the forwarding address generated by Front.

Step 7

In your Google Groups console, open the Google Group you’d like to connect to Front.

Step 8

Click Members in the sidebar, then click the Add members button.

Step 9

Add the Front forwarding address to the Group members field, then click Add members. This will add the Front forwarding address as a member of your Google Group.

Step 10

Navigate back to Front and click Test connection to validate the forwarding is set up correctly. 

If you have trouble validating, please contact us for assistance.

Step 11

Copy the SPF/DKIM records from your channel and add them to your DNS outside of Front. This will give Front proper authority to send emails on behalf of your domain via SendGrid and ensure uninterrupted email deliverability.

More information about SPF/DKIM can be found here (follow Steps 4-6 in the "Shared channels" section).

Step 12 (optional)

Configure any additional channel settings.

These instructions are intended for admins who are ready to move their team to Front as their primary workspace for managing Google Group emails. By following these instructions, your team members will no longer receive Google Group emails in their individual Gmail accounts. Instead, they will only be able to access those emails in Front. There are two options:

You should choose this option if you want your team members to maintain access to the Google Group and its history through the Groups setting. 

As a Google Group Admin/Owner:

Step 1

Navigate to the Google Apps menu and click Groups. You can also navigate to https://groups.google.com/

Step 2

Select the desired Google Group, then click Members in the sidebar.

Step 3

Excluding the Front forwarding address, adjust the subscription status of all members to No email.

As a Google Group Member:

Step 1

Navigate to the Google Apps menu and click Groups. You can also navigate to https://groups.google.com/

Step 2

Under My Groups, find the Google Group that's added to Front and update your subscription to No email.

If you are interested in removing all team members from the Google Group you can easily do this from the Members page of the Group's settings. 

Select the team members you’d like to remove, then click the Remove member icon.

Follow the instructions on this Google help article: Forward email to a third-party CRM.

• When creating a Gmail routing rule, add your address as the single recipient in Step 1, and set your Front forwarding address as the recipient in the "Also deliver to" part of Step 2.

• If you'd like to retain a copy of the incoming messages in your Google Workspace, keep your recipient address present as a Google Group (but turn off email notifications in the Group).

You can create a new Google Group following this Google help article.

The Google Group will need to have these minimum permissions:

• Allow external members: On

• Who can post: Anyone on the web

• Labels: Uncheck the Security label. See details here.

Note: All outbound mail will be sent for Google Groups via SendGrid. You will want to set up your SPF/DKIM records to improve your deliverability.

No. Google’s security groups created via the Google Admin console are not supported. You may see these error messages when adding Front’s forwarding address to the group:

• 0 people invited successfully

• Can’t add 1 member to [group name]. The following member can not be added to [group name] because it doesn’t meet the group’s required conditions.

• An error occurred: The action couldn’t be performed for this person: [Front forwarding address]

Since the Security label is permanent, you'll need to create a new Google Group and uncheck the Security label to add the group to Front.

Google Groups does not accept any incoming messages that have auto-reply metadata in the email headers, so these messages never reach your Google Group inbox nor Front. These messages include bounces, out-of-office messages, time off auto-responders, or any type of automated message that contains an Auto-submitted header. The reason they do this is so that these messages are not sent to the whole mailing list and result in spam for your members.

Unfortunately, Front does not have any control over this, as it is being filtered out by Google before it gets forwarded to Front. If it becomes a problem, Google suggests working with the sender to edit their email headers so that they do not include the Auto-submitted header for these types of emails.

When replying, the recipient address may change to an address other than the actual recipient that sent you the email. You can keep the recipient address the same by adjusting the Post replies to setting in your Google Group.

You will need to open your Google Group in your Google console, click Group settings in the sidebar, then Email options. Scroll to the Post replies to field and set it to Sender chooses recipient.

Please click here for our article centered around troubleshooting Google Groups message issues.

This feature is available on all plans.

• How to add a Gmail account

• How to add a Gmail alias