Gmail: Send mail from another address without "on behalf of" | Hacker News Reader

Gmail: Send mail from another address without "on behalf of"

gmailblog.blogspot.com

102 pointsphilfreo32 comments

Finally. I've been asking for this for years.

Allowing you to authenticate against another SMTP server always seemed like such an easy win for them and I couldn't understand why they didn't just do it. But I guess I'm not the one supporting millions of people on my platform. :)

This makes GMail an even stronger candidate now to replace a desktop mail client in my book. Thanks, Google.

Why is this feature so important to you? Perhaps I can learn something useful.

It's useful because if you're using Gmail to manage email from your own domain(s), and have a non-Gmail primary email address, now people receiving your email won't have to know that you're using Gmail. Often I would get people start using my Gmail account even though I was sending mail from my own domain's email address.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/30/gmail-kisses-on-behalf-...

Google Apps for your domain can help you out--use Gmail and your domain all at once.

Then you have to log in to multiple places, no?

I did that, and abandoned it in favor of regular gmail. Gmail for domains did not have (at that time - I don't know the sitation now) all the features of regular gmail and it had a fixed space quota.

I wish I could migrate my normal Gmail account (all received email to date, current labels and rules) to my Google Apps for your domain account.

It would be time consuming especially if you have a lot of email, but it is possible. Set up your current account in an IMAP client like Thunderbird, download all the messages to local folders, set up the Apps account, move messages into that account.

you can use the new Filter Import/Export tool in Gmail Labs to migrate your rules: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-filter-imp...

What if you have multiple domains?

Just so you know, you can still see the email originated from gmail; you just don't get to see the gmail username. Probably not a huge issue, though?

Right. The first time I noticed the issue, I sent email to my landlord at the time (who was an older guy, a police officer and not all that technically-inclined). He saw my gmail username and somehow thought it was my last name. I thought I was sending him an email from "<firstname>@<lastname>.com"

But yeah, I don't care if someone can open up the headers and trace it back to gmail. I don't want (a) people getting confused; and (b) to have to reveal my gmail address every time I send mail with their client.

Another reason this matters: some places/domains require email to be directed through their auth'd SMTP servers. It means they can do things like sign all emails, or guarantee that all emails you send to people at the same workplace will be encrypted whenever they're transmitted over the public internet.

We heard your request for another option that wouldn't show the "on behalf of" text loud and clear,

right. loud and clear. The imperative word there is probably "heard" - the thread about this on their support forum was started around at the time when gmail began adding support for 3rd party addresses and all the customers got was a mixture between silence and "working as intended".

Don't get me wrong: I'm incredibly happy that this is fixed now, but talking about how well they were listening to their users and how quickly they reacted is borderline cynical.

Sorry. I just had to vent.

This is the feature that I have been waiting for! I can finally manage all of my mail in one place and respond to professors in a professional manner through the school email server and keep my gmail totally behind the scenes. Awesome

I'm also elated for this. Countless times at work, I send an email from gmail using my work/school .edu email and when that mail gets replied and forwarded around back to me with my gmail user name exposed. Not a lot of people know me by my username (which is my gmail) and sometimes I want to keep it that way.

So you don't want your username exposed. On the other hand, some people do not like to reply to Gmail addresses because they don't want their mail to be scanned by an advertising company.

Forwarding email from a random address to a gmail address has been possible as long as gmail has existed. It's not a feature that depends upon Google support.

I did not claim that forwarding email is a novelty. I'm against people using it in this very specific case.

Now just for PGP support.

http://getfiregpg.org/

You don't want server side PGP support - you'd have to give your private key to Google. As much as I trust Google, I still don't trust them that much.

Much more secure to handle the crypto client side. Ideally, Google should work with the firegpg guy so that he has notice before they change the interface (FireGPG tends to break for a day or two whenever there is any change to the GMail UI).

Perhaps they could employ the HTML5 LocalStorage API to store keys.

While I agree that it would be best to not have to give your private key to Google, I think it would be a good start to get all email transmitted using the PGP protocol. Once the emails are being sent like that, those who don't want to trust Google, could more easily do it on the client side since it would be much more in use.

You would probably have to not use Google, since if they are unable to read your email, that kind of destroys their business model.

This change does not seem to affect secondary gmail accounts: does anyone know of a way to get them to work too? Or is there a technical reason why Google cannot do it?

In case someone does not understand the problem: I have a few gmail addresses that I use in contexts where I don't want to disclose my real name. For convenience, all mail sent to these addresses gets forwarded to my primary account, which does use my real name. But because of the sender field, I can't use my primary account to reply to these mails, which makes the situation quite messy.

Great! Now gmail needs to make the "conversations" view optional and give me the ability to view my mail just like any other e-mail client (that is, without automatically combining unrelated e-mails into the same "conversation" just because they share a subject line).

Anybody know if this will work w/ 3rd party email clients?

For example, if I use smtp.gmail.com, but I construct the from address appropriately, will it relay to smtp.mydomain.com and put a copy of the message in my sent items folder on my Gmail account?

It doesn't look like it, but every 3rd party client I know of has the ability to use any SMTP server available to you. From the help page http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=m... :

Note for IMAP/POP users: If you access Gmail through a POP or IMAP email client (e.g. Outlook) and would like to send messages with a custom "from" address, you have two options. We recommend that you configure your email client with two outgoing SMTP servers, one for Gmail and one for your other address. Your second option is to use Gmail's outbound servers with a different "from" address. If you've already configured the custom from address in the web interface, your message will be sent from:otheraddress@domain.com, sender:username@gmail.com, regardless of which custom from configuration you chose. Your messages will be sent from your regular Gmail address if you never configured your custom from settings in the web interface.

Why would you want to use smtp.gmail.com, rather than the SMTP server that matches your From address?

My main concern is having the outgoing email archived by Gmail, preferably in Gmail's Sent Messages folder.

Right now I have Emacs/Gnus configured to get mail via POP3 on Gmail, and upload a copy of outgoing messages to an IMAP folder on Gmail. I'd prefer a cleaner/quicker option.

This is great news. Now, if only the iPhone web app of Gmail supported sending from different accounts this would be perfect.

Sadly, not for the free version of Google Apps for Your Domain.

It works! The trick here is that you need to specify your own smtp server but specify "smtp.gmail.com" anyway and for the user name, use the full address: username@yourdomain.com - also, make sure to use SSL. Just tested, works like a charm.

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