Email / Gmail Integration

Connect your Gmail account to Frontdesk AI so your receptionist can read, draft, and send emails on your behalf. This turns your AI receptionist into an email assistant that can monitor your inbox and respond automatically.

Prerequisites

  • A Frontdesk AI account
  • A Google account with Gmail

Connecting Gmail

  1. Open your receptionist dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the Email page (look for the mail icon in the sidebar).
  3. On the Connection tab, you will see the Google (Gmail) account card.
  4. Click the Connect Google account button.
  5. A Google sign-in window opens. Sign in and grant Frontdesk permission to send, read, and modify emails on your behalf.
  6. Once authorized, the card updates to show Connected with your email address.

Your tokens are stored securely and used only for this feature.

Enabling email monitoring

After connecting Gmail, an Incoming email monitoring card appears:

  1. Toggle the switch to on.
  2. When enabled, your AI receptionist will automatically read and respond to incoming emails in real time.
  3. A green label confirms: "Active -- monitoring your inbox for new emails."

Toggle it off at any time to stop automatic monitoring.

Email Agent tabs

Once connected (and with the email configuration feature enabled), the Email page shows several tabs: Overview, AI & Preferences, Labels, Tickets, Forwarding, Campaign Templates, and Connection. The Overview tab summarizes activity such as emails processed and drafts created.

AI & Preferences tab

Configure how your AI handles emails from the AI & Preferences tab:

  • Drafting Instructions -- customize how the AI drafts email replies on your behalf (e.g., "Always greet the customer by name. Never offer discounts without manager approval.")
  • Labeling Instructions -- guide how the AI categorizes and labels emails (e.g., "Mark any email mentioning refunds as 'Urgent'.")
  • CRM Lead Creation Prompt -- customize how the AI qualifies and creates new CRM leads from incoming emails
  • CRM Settings -- toggle Create leads from emails (automatically add qualifying senders to your CRM) and CRM lead email notifications (get notified when a lead emails you)
  • Scheduling Notifications -- toggle meeting request notifications, which include an "Add to Google Calendar" link when a lead asks to schedule a meeting
  • Email Signature -- appended to all outgoing emails; provide both a Plain Text and an HTML version (the HTML editor includes a live preview)

Click Save All Preferences at the bottom to apply your changes.

Labels tab

The Labels tab manages the labels your AI uses to classify incoming email:

  • Labels are grouped into Predefined Labels, Configured Labels (custom labels with a description), and Unconfigured Labels (custom labels without one)
  • Create Label -- add a new label with a name, color, and a description of when it should be applied. The description is required for AI email classification
  • Edit label descriptions to help the AI understand when to use each label
  • Delete labels you no longer need
  • Toggle label visibility

If you see an Additional permissions required banner, Gmail label management needs updated permissions. Click Reconnect Gmail to re-authorize; your existing email connection is preserved.

Tickets tab

The Tickets tab creates support tickets from incoming email automatically:

  • Escalation scenarios -- click Add scenario, give it a title (e.g., "Refund request"), and describe when it should trigger a ticket (e.g., "Customer mentions they want a refund or expresses dissatisfaction with a purchase"). The AI checks every incoming email against your enabled scenarios and opens a ticket on a match. Each scenario has an on/off switch.
  • Label-based tickets -- check any of your configured labels to automatically create a ticket whenever an incoming email is classified with one of them.

Changes on this tab save automatically; a "Saving… / Saved" indicator appears at the top right.

Forwarding tab

The Forwarding tab auto-forwards matching emails to another address:

  1. Click Add rule.
  2. Enter a Rule name (e.g., "Urgent billing").
  3. Describe the Forwarding condition -- when the rule should trigger (e.g., "emails about billing issues, unpaid invoices, or payment failures").
  4. Enter the Forward to email address.
  5. Leave Enabled on and click Add.

When an incoming email matches a rule's condition, it is forwarded to the specified address automatically. Toggle rules on and off with the switch, click a rule's name to edit it, or use the delete button to remove it. Changes save automatically.

Campaign Templates tab

The Campaign Templates tab holds reusable email templates for your sequences and campaigns:

  1. Click Create Template.
  2. Give the template a subject and build the body from blocks: text, image, button, divider, and raw HTML. Drag blocks to reorder, and duplicate or remove them as needed.
  3. Preview the result (including a mobile preview) before saving.

Existing templates can be edited, previewed, or deleted from the list.

Disconnecting Gmail

  1. Go to the Email page, Connection tab.
  2. Click the Disconnect Gmail button next to the connected account.
  3. The connection is removed. Emails already sent or received are not affected.

Troubleshooting

  • OAuth window does not open -- check your browser popup blocker settings and allow popups for the Frontdesk dashboard.
  • Monitoring not activating -- if toggling the switch shows an error, the AI may need additional Gmail permissions. Reconnect your Google account to grant full access.
  • Labels tab missing -- the labels feature requires the email configuration feature flag to be enabled. Contact support if you do not see this tab.