Forward a Shared Inbox from Google Workspace

An email channel gives your workspace a shared address, like [email protected]. Mail sent to that address has to reach Grovana somehow.

On Google Workspace that address is almost always a Google Group. You connect it by adding Grovana's private forwarding address as a member of the group. Every message the group receives is then copied to Grovana, and your team continues to receive it as before.

Before you start¶

You need two things:

• Access: you must own the group, or be a Super Admin or Groups Admin in Google Workspace.
• A group that accepts outside addresses: Grovana's forwarding address is external, so the group has to accept external members and accept mail from outside your company. Part 2 covers both.

Part 1: Create the channel in Grovana¶

1. Go to Settings → Communication.

2. Click Add email channel.

3. In Source Email Address, type the group address, for example [email protected].

4. In Display Name, type the name recipients see.

5. Click Save.

6. Grovana now shows a Forwarding address. It looks like ch_2cd282d193b5@<your-inbound-domain>. Click Copy.

Part 2: Check the group's settings¶

Two settings decide whether this works at all. Set them correctly before you continue.

1. Open Google Groups and click your group.
2. Click Group settings in the left sidebar.
3. Find External members and turn Allow external members on.

Google turns this off for the whole organization by default, so expect it to be locked the first time. If you see the notice shown above, only a Workspace admin can unlock it, by allowing group owners to add external members across the organization. Ask them, then return here.

1. Scroll down to Who can post and drag the slider all the way to the right, onto the globe. That is Anyone on the web.

Without this, mail from outside your company never reaches the group, so it never reaches Grovana either. This is also blocked across the organization by default, and again only an admin can change it.

1. Click Save changes.

Part 3: Add Grovana to the group¶

1. Click Members in the left sidebar.

2. Click Add members.

3. Paste the forwarding address you copied from Grovana into Group members.

4. Leave Subscription on Each email. This is what makes Google send every message through.
5. Leave Directly add members ticked, so Google adds the address rather than sending an invitation that cannot be accepted.
6. Click Add members.

That completes the setup. Grovana is now a member of the group like any other.

If you do not have a group yet¶

1. In Google Groups, click Create group.

2. Fill in the Group name and the Group email prefix.

3. Click Next twice, then Create group.

4. Now follow Part 2 and Part 3.

Part 4: Test it¶

Send an email from an outside address (a personal Gmail works) to [email protected]. It should appear in Grovana within a minute or two.

Troubleshooting¶

Using a different provider? See Microsoft 365 or any other mail provider.