An outreach tool that sends from your Gmail needs at least one permission: to send email as you. Most also ask to read email, so they can see replies and stop a follow-up when someone answers, and many ask for your calendar, so they can book meetings. Each is a separate checkbox on Google's consent screen, and you can see every app you've approved, and remove any of them, from your Google Account in under a minute. Here is what each permission means, what it's used for, and what to ask a vendor before you connect.
Why a tool asks to connect Gmail at all
There are two ways for software to send your outreach. One is to send from its own servers, with your name on it. The other is to connect to your Gmail and send from there. The second puts the mail in your Sent folder, under your address, with your history behind it, and replies come to the inbox you already read. That is why you'll see "Sign in with Google" screens on tools built this way. It's also why the permissions deserve a read: you're letting software act in your mailbox.
The permissions in plain words
Google lists these on the consent screen and in its developer documentation. The descriptions below paraphrase Google's own wording.
| Permission (Google's wording) | In plain words | Why an outreach tool asks for it |
|---|---|---|
| Send email on your behalf | It can send messages as you. It cannot read your inbox with this alone | To send the outreach and follow-ups |
| View your email messages and settings | It can read your mail | To detect replies and bounces, so a follow-up stops when someone answers |
| Manage drafts and send emails | It can create drafts and send | Some tools use this for "review before sending" |
| Read, compose and send emails | It can read, write and send, but not permanently delete | Broader tools that also file or label mail |
| Read, compose, send and permanently delete all your email | Everything, including permanent deletion | Rarely needed for outreach; ask why |
| Calendar access | It can see your free time and create events | To book meetings into your real calendar |
Google sorts these permissions into "sensitive" and "restricted." In Google's documentation, sending is sensitive and reading mail is restricted, and apps that use restricted permissions go through a stricter review. That review is a reasonable thing to check for, but it's not a guarantee about any vendor's practices.
What read access is used for
Read access is the one people hesitate over, so it helps to know the job it does. An outreach tool that can't read can't tell that Dana replied "not interested" on Tuesday, so on Wednesday it sends her the next follow-up. It can't see a bounce, so it retries a dead address. It can't see that a meeting was already agreed by email. Reading replies is what turns a list of scheduled messages into something that behaves like a person. What read access should not be used for is anything unrelated: browsing your personal mail, training on it, or selling it. That is a question for the vendor, below.
Rocketship asks for permission to send email, to read email so it can see replies, and to use your calendar to book meetings. It sends from your own Gmail or Google account, not from a shared sender.
Reviewing connected apps in your Google account
You can check this at any time, and it's worth doing twice a year.
- Sign in to your Google Account and open Security.
- Find the section for third-party apps and services with access to your account. Google has renamed it over the years, so look for "linked apps" or "connections."
- Select an app to see what it can access and when you approved it.
- Remove anything you don't recognize or no longer use.
Google's help page says that once you revoke an app, it can't access your data anymore, though you may need to ask the developer to delete data it already holds.
Revoking access, and what happens next
Choose the app and select the option to remove access. The tool stops being able to send, read or book. Emails already sent stay in your Sent folder and nothing on your side is deleted. If you reconnect later, you'll be asked to approve again. Revoking is also the right first move if you ever lose a laptop or leave a company where a tool was set up on your account. Ask the agency whose Stripe account the money lands in goes into the same question for agencies: who controls the logins.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Which Google permissions do you request, and what does each one do in your product?
- Do you store the content of my email? For how long?
- Is my mail used to train any model? Is it shared with anyone?
- If I disconnect or cancel, what happens to my data and my tokens?
- Does mail go out from my address, or from yours?
Read the answers in the privacy policy, not just a sales page. If a vendor can't answer the first one in a sentence, that's your answer.
Sending from your own address
The permission is the price of sending from your own Gmail, and the benefit is that your name, history and inbox stay yours. How that fits with limits and setup is in how to send cold emails from Gmail, can you send cold email from your main domain and cold email infrastructure. If you're weighing inboxes, Gmail vs Outlook compares them, and a tool aimed at owners who don't do sales is described in email outreach tool for people who do not do sales.
Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. See the AI workers.