Gmail Integration

Import emails from Gmail as tasks, take actions on emails, and keep your inbox in sync with Sunsama.

Turn the emails you need to act on into tasks. Browse your Gmail inbox and labels in a panel beside your task list, drag an email into your plan, and read, triage and reply to the thread from inside the task.

Installation

Go to Settings > Integrations > Email, or open Gmail in the right hand panel, and click Add Gmail account. You can connect more than one Gmail account, and Outlook accounts too.

Once an account is connected, the same settings page lists your accounts (with Reconnect and Remove) and has two settings: Custom email client (below) and an Include activity from your email in your Daily Highlights? toggle. It also holds your email forwarding address.

Opening emails in Superhuman rather than Gmail

If you use Superhuman as your email client, you can have Sunsama open your Gmail emails in Superhuman rather than Gmail.

Go to Settings > Integrations > Email. Under “Settings”, open the “Custom email client” dropdown and choose “Superhuman (Desktop)” or “Superhuman (Web)”. This setting appears once you’ve connected an email account.

Now when you open an email within Sunsama, whether that email is in your task list or the integration panel, it will open in Superhuman rather than the default email client.

Browsing and importing emails

Open Gmail in the right hand panel to use the integration (keyboard shortcut Shift G).

Use labels and filters to view the relevant set of emails you wish to browse and import into Sunsama.

Labels

Select which type of Inbox or Label you want to view the emails of.

Filters

Click Filter to show or hide these types of emails:

  • Archived
  • Spam and Trash
  • Already Imported (emails you’ve already turned into tasks). A new reply on an imported thread always shows.

GitHub notification emails

An email from GitHub about a pull request, issue or discussion shows a pill under it, like owner/repo#123. Click the pill to preview that GitHub item and import it straight away.

If you’ve already imported that pull request or issue, hiding Already Imported hides its notification emails too, until a new one arrives.

Importing tasks

When you import an email from Gmail into Sunsama, the newly created Sunsama task’s title will be the subject of the email. To import:

  1. Drag the email from the Gmail panel onto your task list.
  2. To timebox it right away, switch to calendar view (J) and drag the email onto your calendar at the time you’ll work on it. Sunsama adds the task to that day and creates a working session on your calendar.
  3. Click the email to preview it and choose Add to today (or hover and press S), Pick a day, or Add to backlog.

Opening an email’s preview from the panel marks it read, as Gmail does.

Pro-tip: merge an email directly into your daily recurring task for triaging your inboxes, if applicable.

Working with imported emails

An imported email becomes a Sunsama task linked to the Gmail thread. Click the Gmail icon on the task (or hover and press G) to open the thread in Gmail.

Gmail email details

Open the Sunsama task to see the whole Gmail thread inside it. Browse and collapse the messages, and act on the thread. Changes are made in Gmail:

  • Mark read or unread (Shift I / Shift U)
  • Archive, or move back to the inbox (E)
  • Star or unstar (S)
  • Mark as spam, or not spam (!)
  • Move to trash, or restore from trash (#)
  • Apply or remove labels

These keys work while the thread has focus. If a control shows a lock, Sunsama needs more Gmail access for it: click it and choose Grant access.

Replying and forwarding

Click the Reply, Reply all or Forward button on a message (or press R, A or F). Write your message and click Send (⌘ Enter on Mac, Ctrl Enter on Windows). Sunsama saves a draft as you type.

After you send, a Message sent notice with Undo appears for 10 seconds. Click Undo to get your draft back before it goes out.

Your Gmail signature is added below the quoted message. Turn it off with the Include email signature switch next to Send; Sunsama remembers your choice for each account in that browser. Sunsama uses the signature you’ve set for new emails, because Gmail doesn’t share a separate reply signature.

Forwarding from Sunsama doesn’t include the original message’s attachments. To forward attachments, open the email in Gmail.

Interacting with Sunsama specific task information

Your associated Sunsama task acts like a worksheet for your Gmail email. Inside your Sunsama task, you can add notes, time tracking information, subtasks, and comments, all of which will not sync back to Gmail. Use your Sunsama task to track the minutia of the task itself.

In the mobile app, an imported email opens in your mail app. Reading and replying inside Sunsama is on web and desktop.

Automations

Open the Gmail panel and click the Automations tab to choose what Sunsama does to an email when you import it (Import Automations) or complete its task (Completion Automations). Click an action to add it; you can add several. Automations apply to the Gmail account you’re viewing.

The actions are archive, move to trash, mark as read or unread, add or remove a star, mark as important or not important, and apply or remove a label.

Best practices

A well configured Gmail automation will allow you to keep your email threads in sync with your existing email triage workflow and not show you an email that’s been delegated to Sunsama in your primary view inside of Gmail (or your email client).

Let’s say you follow a simple “Inbox Zero” methodology where all your emails that require action are in your “Inbox” view and when no further action is needed you “Archive” them. In this case, you might set up your automations like this:

  • Set your “Import Automations” as follows: (1) “Mark as read” (2) “Remove a label” and choose the label “Inbox”. If you do this, once you delegate an email into Sunsama, it will no longer also show in your inbox in your email client.
  • Set your “Completion Automations” to “Archive”.

If you want to keep track of emails that are delegated into Sunsama you can add additional automation steps:

  • In “Import Automations” add “Apply a label” and select a label like “In progress” (you’ll need to make this in Gmail first).
  • Add the “Completion Automation” for “Remove a label” and select the same label as above.

Now, in your Gmail inbox, you can navigate to the “In progress” label and see all the emails you’ve moved into Sunsama but haven’t yet checked off.

Sunny and Autoplan

Sunny can read your Gmail when you ask about it, for example “which emails still need a reply?”. Autoplan also looks at Gmail when it drafts your day. To stop Autoplan from using Gmail, open Integrations on the daily planning screen and turn Gmail off.

Troubleshooting

All my emails aren’t loading or showing

Please try the following:

  • Click “Filter” and make sure to show archived and imported emails.
  • Ensure you don’t have multiple labels simultaneously selected. Sunsama will only show emails that match all selected labels.

Do the actions I take on the email in Sunsama happen in Gmail?

Yes. Archiving, trashing, starring, labeling, marking read or unread, and replying all happen in Gmail, whether you do them from the task or through an automation.

Why do I see more emails in my Gmail folder than should be there?

Check in the “Archived” toggle in your filter settings. If you are viewing archived emails, you will see any emails that are in your selected folder or have been in that folder that are now archived.

Error message: “Speak with your GSuite administrator”

If you are seeing this error message in your Gmail Integration: “It looks like you do not have the Gmail service enabled. Please speak with your GSuite administrator”, do a full reset of your Gmail permissions:

  1. Sign out of Sunsama completely
  2. Go to Google’s Account Permissions and Revoke Sunsama’s Permissions
  3. Sign back into Sunsama from app.sunsama.com/signup
  4. When prompted with Google permissions, make sure to check off the check box granting access to email
  5. Re-add the Gmail integration

If you run into any issues, please write to us at support@sunsama.com with a screen recording and/or more details.

Please re-add the Gmail integration

This can happen when Sunsama’s authorization to Gmail is revoked, this can happen for a variety of reasons like changing your password.

  1. Click the Reconnect account button inside the Gmail panel.
  2. When you see the Google permissions screen be sure to check off any check boxes related to providing email access.

If that doesn’t work, do the full reset in the section above.

Can I open emails in Superhuman rather than Gmail?

Yes. See Opening emails in Superhuman rather than Gmail.