Interacting with Gmail mailboxes

Written by Martin Moroney

Published on February 9, 2022

This article was posted more than 18 months ago.

Introduction 

Step one of any automation Story is to get information into Tines. This can be done in several ways, including via a Webhook or polling for alerts. But in many cases, the starting point will be through email.

Phishing response is a very common workflow that security teams want to automate, so it makes sense to have Tines read directly from a mailbox to gather these reports. Similarly, some tools only support alerting to a mailbox; in that case, Tines can help you begin automating by reading and parsing these alerts. As a result, one of the most common questions we get asked is, “How do I connect a mailbox to Tines?” And the answer is: It depends! Here, we’re going to answer this question for Google Workspace (G Suite). But for Microsoft Office 365, this blog will help you get started.

There are a few different authentication methods that can be used to connect Tines to Gmail, and each has its uses and benefits. These are through IMAP, OAuth2, or via a JSON Web Token (JWT). The appropriate auth method will vary depending on your end goal.

These aren’t strict rules, they're just guidelines to help you set up and read emails in the most straightforward manner possible. Let’s look at the OAuth and JWT authentication in more detail since these require some configuring on the G Suite end.

Getting Started with G Suite APIs