# Email threads
Source: https://docs.aden.space/docs/help/work-together/linked-email-threads

Send real email from your connected Gmail inbox inside the app, read the whole conversation on the record it is about, and jump between Aden and Gmail in both directions.
{/* Generated by `bun docs:publish` from docs/features/linked-email-threads.md: edit the spec, not this file. */}

## What it is [#what-it-is]

Email is where booking actually happens, but it usually lives in a separate tab
so the record in Aden says "contacted" while the real conversation sits in
Gmail where nobody else can see it.

Connect a Gmail inbox once, and Aden can send from it and show the resulting
conversation on the thing the conversation is about. Mail goes out from your own
address (it lands in your Gmail "Sent" like any other email), and when the
promoter replies, the reply shows up on the record too. You read and answer it
without leaving the page.

Nothing is copied into Aden: your mail stays in Gmail and is fetched when you
open the record.

## Using it [#using-it]

1. **Connect an inbox.** Organisation settings → **Inboxes** → connect Gmail.
   Google will ask to allow sending as well as reading; both are needed for
   replies to work.
2. **Send from the record.** On an event prospect, open it and use **Draft
   outreach** to write the pitch, then **Send with Gmail**. The email goes to the
   linked contact from your connected address.
3. **Read and reply in place.** The **Emails** section on the prospect shows the
   full conversation, newest activity first. Hit **Reply**, write, send. It
   threads as a normal reply on the recipient's side.
4. **Pull in a conversation that started in Gmail.** Use **Find earlier emails
   with this contact** to search your connected inbox for threads with that
   address and attach the right one, so the history shows up on the record too.
5. **Jump to Gmail when you need it.** Every thread has **Open in Gmail**: for
   attachments, formatting, or forwarding, which the in-app panel doesn't do.

### The other direction: from Gmail into Aden [#the-other-direction-from-gmail-into-aden]

With the Aden Chrome extension installed and signed in, an open Gmail
conversation gets an **Open in Aden** button next to the subject. It tells you
which record the mail belongs to and takes you straight there, and when the mail
is with a contact you already have, it offers to **attach** the thread to that
record so it shows up on the Aden side from then on.

If the button says it can't read the conversation, open the mail fully (not the
list preview) and try again.

### Sending as a custom address [#sending-as-a-custom-address]

If you set up a custom address in Gmail (Settings → Accounts and Import → **Send
mail as**, a custom domain or a Workspace alias), you can send as that address
from Aden too. Open the mailbox in settings and pick it from the address button
on its row: Aden reads the list from Gmail each time you open it, so an address
you add there is offered here without reconnecting.

Only **verified** addresses can be picked. That is a Gmail rule, not ours:
Gmail does not refuse an unverified sender, it quietly sends the mail from your
main address instead. If that ever happens, Aden reads back what actually went
out and says so, so you find out from the app rather than from the recipient.

If an inbox was connected before sending existed, sending will tell you to
reconnect it: Google only grants the extra permission on a fresh connect. The
same applies to the alias list, which needs the newer settings permission.