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Delegated Email access for Google Workspace

Updated

In some situations, you may need to have access to another person's mailbox. For example if another team member goes on leave or if you need to share the account. 

Sharing passwords is a bad idea and not secure, so we use what is known as "Delegated Access" to facilitate multiple persons accessing one mailbox. 

With this specific permission granted, it means you can open, read and send emails as that person from your own email account.

 

Guide Contents

1. Add a delegate to your mailbox

2. Open a Delegated Mailbox

 

 

1. Add a delegate to your mailbox.

  1. On your computer, open webmail at mail.google.com (you can't add delegates from a desktop app)
  2. Sign-in to the mailbox then in the top right, click Settings > See all settings.
  3. Click the Accounts and Import or Accounts tab.
  4. In the "Grant access to your account" section, click Add another account.
  5. Enter the email address of the person you want to add. This must be a user on the yourcompanyname.com domain.
  6. Click Next Step >  Send email to grant access.
  7. The person you added will get an email asking them to confirm. It may take up to 24 hours for you to see them as a delegate after they confirm.

Note: The invitation expires after a week.

 

 

2. Open a Delegated Mailbox:

Once the mailbox has been delegated, use these steps to access it:

  1. Accept the invite that was emailed to your account.

  2. Sign-in to webmail at mail.google.com (a delegated mailbox cannot be accessed in a desktop app)

  3. Click on the image or initial icon at the top right corner of your screen.

  4. In the drop-down menu that appears, click on the Shared Mailbox name with (delegated) after the email address.

  5. The shared/delegated account will open in a new tab or window. It will look just like another inbox but will NOT include:

    • Chat
    • Full access to contacts
    • Calendar, Docs/Drive, Sites
    • Labs
    • Themes

     

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