How to use your custom domain email in Gmail

Read your domain mailbox in the Gmail app over IMAP and send as [email protected] from Gmail on the web. What still works after Google's changes.

4 min read

Lots of people like Gmail's interface and don't want to learn another one just because they now have an address on their own domain. Good news: you don't have to. Gmail can still work with a mailbox from another provider, although Google changed what it can do, and old tutorials are now wrong in places.

What changed

For years, the standard advice was to open Gmail on the web, go to Accounts and Import and add Check mail from other accounts. Gmail would then pull your domain mail into your inbox.

That feature, along with Gmailify, has been removed for new users. So the old tutorial doesn't work anymore. Two parts of Gmail still do:

  1. The Gmail app on your phone or tablet can add another account over IMAP, so your domain mailbox appears next to your Gmail account.
  2. Gmail on the web can still send as another address, using the SMTP server of your mail host.

Put them together and you get nearly the same result: read on your phone, send from the web, always as your domain address. Google can change this again, so check the details in Gmail's current help if a step doesn't look like ours.

Part 1: read your domain mail in the Gmail app

You'll need your full email address, the mailbox password and the server hostname from your provider. For Mailions the mailbox setup guide shows the hostname.

  1. Open the Gmail app and tap your profile picture.
  2. Choose Add another account, then Other.
  3. Enter your full address. On Android, pick Personal (IMAP) if asked.
  4. Enter the mailbox password.
  5. For incoming mail, use IMAP with your mail host, port 993 and security SSL/TLS.
  6. For outgoing mail, use your mail host, port 587 and security STARTTLS, with sign-in required.
  7. Pick a sync frequency and finish.

The mailbox now sits under your profile picture. Because it uses IMAP, anything you read, delete or move stays in sync with the browser and other devices. If the port numbers feel arbitrary, SMTP and IMAP ports explained covers them.

Part 2: send as your domain from Gmail on the web

Without this step, replies from a Gmail account go out from your @gmail.com address, which defeats the point.

  1. On a computer, open Gmail, click the gear and choose See all settings.
  2. Open the Accounts and Import tab.
  3. Under Send mail as, click Add another email address.
  4. Enter your name and your domain address. Leave "Treat as an alias" ticked if you want replies to behave as one account.
  5. For the SMTP server, enter your mail host, port 587, your full address as the username and your mailbox password. Choose a secured connection with TLS.
  6. Gmail sends a confirmation message to your domain mailbox. Open it in the Gmail app from Part 1, or in webmail, and click the link or enter the code.

When you write a new message, a From drop-down lets you pick the address. You can also set it as the default.

Common problems

Gmail says it couldn't connect or log in. Check that the username is the full address, not the part before the @, that the password is your mailbox password (not your Google password), and that the port is 587 with TLS.

The confirmation email never arrives. It goes to the domain mailbox itself, not to your Gmail inbox. Check there. If it still isn't there, make sure your MX records are published and the mailbox can receive mail.

Replies show "via gmail.com". That happens when Gmail sends through its own servers instead of yours. Use your mail host's SMTP in the Send mail as step, not Gmail's.

Sent mail lands in spam at the other end. Authentication is probably missing. Send a test to yourself and check SPF, DKIM and DMARC in Show original. What an SPF record is is a good place to start.

Keeping two inboxes tidy

Gmail will show your domain mailbox as a separate account, not merged into your Gmail inbox. That is deliberate and mostly a good thing: business mail doesn't get mixed with newsletters and receipts. Use the account switcher at the top right to move between them. Turn notifications on for the business account only, so your phone buzzes for customers and stays quiet for promotions.

Should you do this at all?

It's a fine compromise. You keep a familiar interface on your phone and still present a professional address. The cost is that your mail now lives in two places conceptually: stored on your mail host, displayed in Gmail. If you ever drop Gmail, nothing is lost, because the mail was never only in Gmail.

If you'd rather skip Gmail entirely, the private webmail that comes with a Mailions mailbox works in any browser, and the same mailbox opens in Outlook, Apple Mail and Thunderbird.

Getting a mailbox to connect

You need a mailbox on your domain first. Setting up professional email on your own domain covers that, and if you'd like us to set it up, contact us.