Connect your Gmail (personal or Google Workspace) and every trip email Trips sends on your behalf goes out from your real address — [email protected]. Sent copies appear in your Gmail Sent folder, and client replies thread back into the trip's Messages tab. When Gmail isn't connected, emails still go out — they just come from our fallback sender.
Connect Gmail
Open Settings → Email integrations.
Click Connect Gmail.
Google opens its standard sign-in + consent screen. Pick the account you want sends to come from (your real agency mailbox, not a personal one).
Approve the requested permissions.
You're redirected back to Settings → Email integrations with a green Connected pill showing the connected address and the moment you connected.
What we ask Google for
When you approve the consent screen you grant Trips five specific Gmail/Google scopes — nothing more.
gmail.send— send messages as you. We use this to put trip emails in your Sent folder under your address.gmail.modify— file inbound replies + add labels so threading works cleanly inside Gmail itself. We do not delete messages.openid,email,profile— confirm which Google account you connected so we display the right address in the settings card.
Tokens are stored in your database row encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM, with a key kept in your platform secrets store — not in source). The plaintext access token only exists in memory long enough to call Google's API, then is discarded.
How sends route
Once you're connected, every trip email you send from inside Trips routes through your Gmail. The send happens server-to-server via Google's API — there's no SMTP password anywhere.
Gmail connected
From shows your real address.
Copy appears in your Gmail Sent folder.
Replies land in your Gmail inbox AND the trip's Messages tab.
Gmail not connected
Email still sends — from our backup sender, with your name attached.
Nothing in your Gmail Sent folder.
Replies still thread to Trip Messages via the signed Reply-To address.
How replies thread back
Every outbound trip email — through your Gmail or through the fallback — is sent with a per-message Reply-To address shaped like trip-{tripId}-{messageId}-{hmac}@trips.urtravelpro.com. When the client hits Reply in their mail client, the reply goes to that address. Our inbound webhook validates the HMAC, looks up the trip + parent message, and files the reply as a new TripMessage on the right thread.
You see the reply in two places: your Gmail inbox (because the Reply-To address forwards back to you), AND the trip's Messages tab (because the webhook filed it). Bell notifications fire on both.
Using the same Gmail across multiple agencies
If you belong to more than one agency (e.g. you sub-contract for two host agencies that both use Trips), you don't have to re-OAuth in each one. Connect Gmail once in agency A; in agency B, Settings → Email integrations shows a Use my existing Gmail shortcut listing the addresses you've already connected elsewhere. Click it, and Trips wires the same mailbox into the current org without sending you through Google again.
Disconnect
On Settings → Email integrations, click Disconnect Gmail. Trips revokes the refresh token at Google (so the access we held is dead the moment you click) and deletes the encrypted token row. Until you reconnect, new trip emails route through the fallback sender.
You can also revoke from Google's side at myaccount.google.com/permissions if you want to confirm. The next time Trips tries to send via your mailbox it will see the revocation and fall back automatically.
Troubleshooting
Emails are going out from the fallback sender even though I connected.
The connection probably dropped — Google invalidates third-party access after security events (password change, 2-Step enrollment, long idle). The Gmail troubleshooting guide walks through every cause.
I clicked Connect Gmail and got "Access blocked: Your administrator has not allowed this app."
Your Google Workspace admin has restricted third-party app access. They need to add UrTravelPro Trips as a Trusted app under Security → API controls in admin.google.com.
Reply came back to my Gmail but didn't show in Trip Messages.
Most likely: the client typed your address into a fresh email instead of hitting Reply, so the threading headers are missing. Confirm they used the Reply button on the original message.