Configuring Google Workspace accounts to send via Gmail SMTP Relay

You can connect Google Workspace user accounts to Front, and send outbound email via Gmail’s SMTP Relay in order to access higher daily sending limits for your Gmail channels (see Google’s article on sending limits for the SMTP relay service for more details).

Typical email usage will not require the higher sending limits that Gmail offers with the SMTP Relay, however if you are receiving errors such as 550 5.4.5 Daily user sending quota exceeded due to exceeding your Gmail sending limits, this is an approach you may want to consider.

Gmail also recommends using the SMTP relay service to filter messages for spam and viruses before they reach external contacts. You can also apply Google Workspace email security and advanced Gmail settings to outgoing messages.

Any teammate who needs to configure their mail in this way must:

• Connect that Gmail to Front as a Google Workspace account (see How to add a Gmail inbox to Front for instructions)

• Have 2-Step Verification enabled on their Google account

  • For Google Administrators - see Google’s Set up 2-Step Verification article for information on enabling 2-Step Verification for your organization

  • For teammates - see Google’s Turn on 2-Step Verification article for instructions on how to set up Google 2-Step Verification for your Google account

Step 1

Start by ensuring that 2-Step Verification is enabled for the Google account you are configuring.

Step 2

Create an App Password for this Google account (Follow Google’s instructions on how to Sign in using App Passwords for instructions on how to create these passwords).

Step 3

The App Password will need to be configured for the “Mail” app, and you can set the Device to “Other (Custom name)”; we would suggest naming it “Front SMTP-Relay”.

Step 4

Copy the app password that is generated for you - we will be using that in a moment.

Step 5

Now you’ve created that password, head over to your Front settings.

Step 6

If you have already connected that Google Workspace account in Front, go to the channel settings for your existing inbox.

If not, then follow our How to add a Gmail inbox to Front instructions to connect the account before proceeding to the next step.

Step 7

Open the Custom SMTP settings for your Gmail channel. You will need to configure:

• Host: smtp-relay.gmail.com

• Port: 587

• Login: [The email address of this Gmail account]

• Password: [Here is where you enter the Google App Password you generated earlier]

Step 8

Hit the Test Connection button - provided everything went well, you should receive a Connection Successful message.

Step 9

Scroll up to the top of this page, and click Save.

Step 10

That’s it! Test sending and receiving emails via that channel, to ensure everything is working as expected. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, or these settings aren’t working as expected.

If after following the steps listed above you are experiencing sending errors, we suggest checking your Google Workspace account does not restrict the IPs which outbound mail can be sent from. If this is the case, you may need to lift these restrictions, or configure a sending policy to ensure mail can be sent via the SMTP relay.

Refer to Gmail's SMTP relay service error messages documentation for full details.