# Connecting your Gmail account

Connect your personal Gmail account to ProductiveRecruit so outreach emails send from your own address and replies land in your inbox.

Every email you send through ProductiveRecruit goes out from your own Gmail address, not a shared or generic inbox. That means coaches see your real name in their inbox and any reply lands where you'd already look for it: your Gmail. Connecting takes about a minute.

## Choose a provider

The first time you set up email, you'll see two options presented as cards:

- **Gmail** (marked "Recommended") — sends from your personal Gmail account. Coaches prefer receiving email from a real personal address over a generic one, so this is the path most athletes use.
- **ProductiveRecruit** — sends from an internal `@prodrecruit.com` address instead. This is a fallback option for athletes who don't want to connect a personal Google account; it requires setting a username and a reply-to address.

To connect Gmail, click **Continue with Google** and sign in with the Google account you want to send from.

## What permission you're granting

Before you continue, ProductiveRecruit shows a permission notice explaining why it's asking for access: to send college recruiting emails on your behalf, directly from your Gmail, from inside the platform. ProductiveRecruit never sees or stores your Google password. Full detail on how your data is handled is in ProductiveRecruit's [privacy policy](/privacy).

Google's consent screen will ask you to approve sending mail as you. Approve it to finish the connection.

One requirement: the Google account has to use a Gmail address (`@gmail.com`, `@googlemail.com`, or a Google Workspace domain). If you sign in with a Google account tied to a non-Gmail address (an iCloud, Yahoo, or Outlook address linked to Google, for example), you'll get an error asking you to reconnect with a Gmail address instead.

## Check your connection status

Once connected, your **Email account** page shows your sending address with a status indicator (a green check means everything's working, a red x means it needs attention), along with when it was last verified. If anything looks off, click **Verify now** to re-check the connection.

Google access tokens expire periodically; ProductiveRecruit refreshes yours automatically in the background. If a refresh ever fails, your status will show as needing reconnection and you'll need to run through **Continue with Google** again.

## Set your signature and profile link

On the same page you can add a **signature**. It's appended to the bottom of every email you send. There's also an **"Include profile link in outgoing emails"** toggle (on by default), which automatically adds a link to your recruiting profile below your signature so coaches can find your full profile and video in one click.

## Disconnect or reset

If you ever need to switch Google accounts or disconnect entirely, use **Reset email account**. This revokes ProductiveRecruit's access to that Google account. It doesn't delete your sent-email history, so past outreach stays intact. You can reconnect the same account or a different one at any time.

## What's next

- Set up your default template and learn the variables it fills in automatically: [Email templates & variables](/docs/email/templates-and-variables).
- Send your first message to a coach: [Sending a single email](/docs/email/send-a-single-email).
- Know the daily and plan-based sending limits before you scale up: [Deliverability & sending limits](/docs/email/deliverability-and-limits).
- Once you're comfortable sending one at a time, reach more coaches at once with [campaigns](/docs/email/campaigns).

Source: https://productiverecruit.com/docs/email/connect-gmail