How to Send Email using Gmail SMTP Server

Sending emails using the Gmail SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is a common task for developers and users who want to automate sending emails from their applications or services. 

In this guide, we will cover the steps to send an email using the Gmail SMTP server in detail.

Gmail is a popular email service provider offered by Google, and it provides SMTP servers that can be used to send emails from third-party applications or services. 

To send an email using the Gmail SMTP server, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Set up a Gmail account: 

If you do not have a Gmail account, you will need to sign up for one. Go to the Gmail website (https://www.gmail.com/) and click on the “Create account” button to create a new Gmail account. Follow the on-screen instructions to set up your account with a username and password.

2. Enable “Less Secure Apps” in your Gmail account: 

By default, Gmail has security measures that block less secure apps from accessing your account. To use the Gmail SMTP server to send emails, you will need to enable the “Less Secure Apps” option in your Gmail account settings. Note that enabling this option may pose a security risk, so proceed with caution. 

To enable “Less Secure Apps”, follow these steps:

a. Log in to your Gmail account. 

b. Go to your Google Account settings by clicking on your profile picture in the top-right corner and selecting “Google Account”. 

c. In the left-hand menu, click on “Security”. 

d. Scroll down to the “Less secure apps” section and toggle the switch to enable it. 

Note that if you have two-factor authentication enabled on your account, you may need to generate an “App Password” instead of enabling “Less Secure Apps”.

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3. Obtaining Gmail SMTP Server Credentials:

To send emails using Gmail SMTP server, you need to obtain the SMTP server credentials. Follow these steps to obtain the credentials:

a. Go to https://myaccount.google.com/security

b. Under “Signing in to Google”, click on “App passwords”

c. Select the “Mail” app and the “Other (Custom name)” option

d. Enter a custom name for your app (e.g., “MyApp”)

e. Click on the “Generate” button

Google will generate an app password for you. Make sure to copy the generated app password as you will need it to authenticate with the Gmail SMTP server in your application or email client.

4. Choose a programming language and library: 

To send an email using the Gmail SMTP server, you will need to use a programming language that supports SMTP and choose a library that provides SMTP functionality. Most programming languages have libraries or modules that can be used to send emails via SMTP. Some popular programming languages and libraries for sending emails using the Gmail SMTP server include:

a. Python: You can use the built-in smtplib library in Python to send emails using the Gmail SMTP server. You will need to import the smtplib module and create an SMTP object with the Gmail SMTP server details, such as the hostname (smtp.gmail.com) and port number (587 for TLS or 465 for SSL). You will also need to provide your Gmail email address and password for authentication. Then, you can use the sendmail() method to send the email.

b. PHP: You can use the built-in mail() function in PHP to send emails using the Gmail SMTP server. You will need to configure the SMTP settings in your PHP code using the ini_set() function or the php.ini configuration file. You will need to set the SMTP and smtp_port configuration values to smtp.gmail.com and 587 for TLS or 465 for SSL, respectively. You will also need to provide your Gmail email address and password for authentication as the “From” address.

c. Java: You can use the JavaMail API to send emails using the Gmail SMTP server in Java. You will need to add the JavaMail library to your Java project and configure the SMTP settings using the Properties class. You will need to set the mail.smtp.host property to smtp.gmail.com and the mail.smtp.port property to 587 for TLS or 465 for SSL. You will also need to provide your Gmail email address and password for authentication using the Transport class. Then, you can create a MimeMessage object to compose.

5. Compose the Email Once you have chosen a programming language and library, you will need to compose the email.

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Example: Sending Email using Gmail SMTP in Python

Python is a popular programming language for scripting and automation tasks. Here’s an example of how you can send email using Gmail SMTP in Python using the built-in smtplib library:

import smtplib

# Gmail SMTP server settings

smtp_server = ‘smtp.gmail.com’

smtp_port = 587

smtp_username = ‘your-email@gmail.com’

smtp_password = ‘your-password’

# Recipient email address

to_email = ‘recipient-email@example.com’

# Email content

subject = ‘Test Email’

body = ‘This is a test email sent from Python.’

# Create the email message

from email.mime.text import MIMEText

msg = MIMEText(body)

msg[‘From’] = smtp_username

msg[‘To’] = to_email

msg[‘Subject’] = subject

# Connect to the SMTP server

server = smtplib.SMTP(smtp_server, smtp_port)

server.starttls()

server.login(smtp_username, smtp_password)

# Send the email

server.sendmail(smtp_username, to_email, msg.as_string())

# Close the connection

server.quit()

print(‘Email sent successfully.’)

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Originally posted on April 8, 2023 @ 1:39 pm