Give a Teammate Gmail Access Without Sharing Your Password

Gmail delegation lets an assistant handle your inbox using their own Google account, without your password. For a shared team inbox in Google Workspace, a Google Group with Collaborative Inbox features is usually the better fit.

Gmail delegation is for one person's mailbox

Gmail delegation lets someone read, send and delete mail in your account without signing in as you. Each delegate uses their own Google account. Choose it when an assistant needs to handle messages sent to your existing address, such as booking requests or routine replies.

A delegate can work with the mailbox, not take over the whole Google account. They cannot change your password. The important trade-off is that delegation exposes the inbox, including older messages and mail unrelated to the task. It is not a way to grant access to only one label or conversation.

Before adding an assistant, decide whether they genuinely need the whole mailbox. If some messages should remain private, move the work to a separate address rather than relying on an instruction not to open them. Agree on which replies the assistant may send, which messages need your approval and how they should flag anything urgent.

Delegation solves access, not the entire handover. If someone is covering an absence, the out-of-office handover guide can help you decide what context and decisions to pass along.

A Google Group is for a shared team address

A Google Group with Collaborative Inbox features is a better choice when incoming mail belongs to a team rather than to one person. People can write to the group address, and authorised members can manage the conversations in Google Groups. Team members can assign conversations and mark them complete, making it easier to see who is handling a request.

This is not the same as several people opening one Gmail mailbox. Members may receive copies of group messages in Gmail, but the shared conversation and its assignment status live in Google Groups. If your team expects a familiar Gmail inbox with its existing labels and history, check that difference before changing how customers contact you.

In Google Workspace, an administrator may control whether people can create groups and which group features are available. Ask whoever manages your Workspace to confirm the settings before announcing a new address. Also decide who may join, view conversations and reply on behalf of the group. Those permissions matter as much as the address itself.

A group does not automatically contain mail previously sent to a personal inbox. Keep the old mailbox available for earlier conversations, and tell regular senders where new requests should go.

The right choice follows the address people already use

Choose Gmail delegation if the work is tied to your personal work address and an assistant needs to act on your behalf. Choose a Google Group if the address represents a function, such as general enquiries, and responsibility should stay with the team when members change.

A useful test is to imagine the current owner leaving. If someone must continue answering mail sent to that person's address while you arrange a transition, delegation may help in the short term. If callers and customers should never have needed that person's address in the first place, a team address is the stronger long-term arrangement. It gives the work a home that does not depend on one individual's mailbox.

Neither option is a substitute for agreeing who responds. Delegation gives access to the same inbox, but it does not create an assignment queue. A Collaborative Inbox provides assignment and completion controls, but people still need a habit of checking them. Decide where an unanswered request is visible and who steps in when its owner is away.

For a small, temporary cover arrangement, delegation may be enough. Do not build a shared workflow just because several people occasionally need to see one person's mail.

Gmail delegation starts in the account owner's settings

To set up Gmail delegation for an assistant, sign in to the mailbox being shared in Gmail on a computer. Open Settings, choose See all settings, then open Accounts and Import or Accounts. Under Grant access to your account, add the assistant's Google account. Google sends an invitation that the assistant must accept before delegated access becomes available.

The assistant should sign in with their own account and switch to the delegated mailbox from Gmail's account menu. They should not need your password, a forwarded sign-in code or access to your recovery methods. If the grant-access option is missing in a work account, ask your Google Workspace administrator whether delegation is allowed under your organisation's settings.

After acceptance, check access with an ordinary, non-sensitive message. Have the assistant open it, prepare a suitable reply and confirm with you how a sent message appears to a recipient. Depending on account settings, recipient-facing details may identify the delegate. Agree on a reply style before the assistant handles external mail.

Keep delegation separate from bulk sending. If the job is to prepare messages from a spreadsheet, the Gmail and Google Sheets sending guide covers checks that mailbox access alone does not provide.

A Collaborative Inbox needs clear membership and permissions

To set up a shared team inbox in Google Workspace, start by creating or choosing a Google Group for the team address. In the group's settings, enable Collaborative Inbox features where your Workspace configuration permits them. Add the people who will handle messages and check who can view conversations, post messages and post as the group.

Ask a teammate to send a harmless test message to the group address. Check that the intended members can find the conversation in Google Groups, assign it, reply in the intended identity and mark it complete. If a reply comes from a person's address when the team expected the group address, review the group's posting permissions and reply behaviour before inviting customers to use it.

Write a simple operating rule: who watches new conversations, when to assign one and what completion means. A completed conversation might mean that the request has been answered, not merely read. Decide how to handle messages that need a private reply or contain information the whole group should not see.

If the team mainly wants notifications rather than shared ownership, an ordinary group may be sufficient. Turn on Collaborative Inbox features when assignment and completion will actually help people coordinate.

Access should end when the work ends

Remove access when an assistant stops covering your Gmail or a teammate leaves the group. For delegation, the mailbox owner can return to Gmail's Grant access to your account setting and remove the delegate. For a Google Group, a group manager or Workspace administrator can update membership and review who retains permission to view or post.

Check the work before removing someone. Reassign unfinished group conversations, review replies that were waiting for approval and make sure customers have a continuing contact address. Removing a delegate stops future mailbox access, but it does not undo messages they already sent or information they previously saw. The same caution applies when removing a group member.

Keep passwords and verification codes out of the handover. Sharing a sign-in can make it difficult to tell who acted and leaves access dependent on one person's credentials. Delegation and group membership give you a clearer way to add and remove people.

Revisit the choice if the work changes. A temporary assistant may need delegation today, while a growing team may be better served by a group address for future requests. You can change the route for new mail without assuming that old conversations will move with it.

Sources consulted

• Google Gmail Help (support.google.com)
• Google Groups Help (support.google.com)
• Google Workspace Admin Help (support.google.com)

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