Gmail API support in EmailEngine

From the beginning, EmailEngine has supported only IMAP and SMTP accounts as email backends. This approach has generally been quite effective, as it encompasses the majority of email accounts. Both Gmail and Outlook support IMAP and SMTP with OAuth2, allowing EmailEngine to function even when these platforms disable "non-modern" authentication methods.

However, IMAP and SMTP are not always the most suitable options. Recognizing this, we have been working on adding additional email backends to EmailEngine. The first of these new backends is support for the Gmail API, available from EmailEngine version 2.43.0.

When a Gmail API account is added to EmailEngine, it no longer opens IMAP or SMTP connections for that account. Instead, EmailEngine performs all operations by issuing Gmail API requests. Setting up the Gmail API is slightly more complex than using Gmail OAuth2 with IMAP. In addition to a regular OAuth2 account, EmailEngine requires access to Google Cloud Pub/Sub to process webhook notifications about changes to the email account.

You can read the detailed instructions for configuring the Gmail API with EmailEngine in our documentation here.