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Setting up Two-way Email with G Suite, Gmail and Google Mail
Setting up Two-way Email with G Suite, Gmail and Google Mail

How to set up distribution groups in Google for use in Operate Two-way Email

Brian Kavanagh avatar
Written by Brian Kavanagh
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

When using Two-way Email in Operate, it is necessary to set up a distribution email address. If you are using G Suite, Gmail or Google Mail as your internal mailing system, there is a specific way in which the distribution address should be set up. This is slightly different to Microsoft Exchange and other mail servers. Below are some tips for setting up and configuring the group for use with Two-way Email.
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Setting up the group 

Group details 

1. Navigate to the Groups section within your G Suite Admin console and follow Google's guide on how to Create a group in G-Suite

2. Enter your group's details and ensure that the Group's Email Address is the distribution email address that you are using within the Operate two-way email process. This is the email that people see when replying to your emails. 

  • Group name - This can be anything, but try to make it meaningful, such as Operate Two-Way Email

  • Group description - This can be anything, and again it is useful to make it something meaningful.

  • Group email - Here is where you need to enter your two-way distribution email from within Operate.

  • Group owner - Choose this according to your organisational needs.  

Group settings

1. You can arrange the permissions however you like for Group Owners, Group managers, Group members and your Entire Organisation. You will need to allow the Publish posts permission under External; and you can disable View topics and "Contact owners", both under External as well.

2.Under Who can join the group you can set this to suit your organisation's needs
3. You will need to turn on Allow members outside your organisation.

Add the Forwarding Email address from Operate to the group

1. Copy your forwarding address from within Operate's Settings > General > General/Getting Started > Email Setup.

2. In the groups console, hover over your newly created group and click Add members.

3. In the Find a user or group area, enter the forwarding address provided within Operate and click Add to group.

4. Click Advanced and make sure All Email is selected at the bottom

Advanced Settings

In the Groups console, hover over your group and select Edit settings

Next, click on Advanced Settings

Toggle the Advanced mode - at the top right of your screen.

On the left side of your screen, drop-down the Group Settings menu and select Email options.

  • Make sure none of the boxes in the Email footer section are ticked.

  • Do the same for the Auto Replies section.

Under Post replies to select 'All Group Members'.

Save your changes. The option is found at the bottom of your Group Settings section.

On the left again, drop-down the People section and select Members.

If there are members or group owners who do not require emails from Operate (e.g. IT staff), you can set them up accordingly. Ideally, only the user who sets up the group should be configured to not receive email, but the needs of your organisation may be different.

Here is how to make sure desired members or owners do not receive any messages:

  1. If you need to configure one or a few records, you can pick the user and select No email in the dropdown that states "Each email", found on the same line as the user * (Step 1, shown on the second record in the screenshot below).

  2. To adjust this setting for multiple members/owners in one go, select them using the checkbox and click the Change subscription (envelope) icon at the top right of the list. Here is where you can select No Email. This will adjust the subscription on each individual user you included (Step 2 in the screenshot below).

All members who should receive emails from Operate should be set to Each email. Please make sure this is configured correctly so that your emailing runs smoothly.

Please note:

The most recent G-suite release at the time of writing (July 2020) is documented here.

Activate Two-way Email in Operate

Follow the rest of the steps to complete the set up of your Two-way Email in Operate. 

The Group Email address you use when creating the group will act as your Distribution Email in Operate's setup.  This is why the email should be relevant to your business, since it is user-facing. When someone sends an email or a reply to this email, messages should be picked up by Operate and available as an Email Notification.

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