The popularity of smartphones really helps instant messages gain its user base, inching toward email as the king of the personal communication arena. While time-tested email is ideal for long-form text and big-sized files, instant message, with its mobility, shines the brightest for short and quick banters between buddies. That’s why email clients and instant messengers have their differences because they are created from a different perspective.
Slowly but surely the usage gap between the two is narrowing. Having two separate applications to serve more or less similar functions seems more and more obsolete. If you are a Gmail and Telegram user and agree with the statement, you can try Telegram’s Gmail Bot to receive your email within the Telegram client.
The Rise of the Bots
One thing that separates Telegram from most other instant messengers out there is the existence of Bots. Once a favorite feature among hard-core IRC users a few decades back, bot technology made a comeback recently and powered several popular mobile applications, including Telegram.
But what are bots, specifically Telegram Bots? According to its official bot page, bots are “third-party applications that run inside Telegram.” Users can interact with bots by sending them messages, commands, and inline requests. The bots can be controlled using HTTPS requests to Telegram’s bot API.
Accompanied by an army of existing bots, Telegram users can do things that many other instant messengers can’t even imagine, such as:
- Get customized notifications and news
- Integrate with other services
- Create custom tools
- Build single and multiplayer games
- Build social services
You can even create your bot with the help of the BotFather (It seems that pun is intended.), similar to the method we use to connect a WordPress blog with Telegram.
Receive Gmail’s Incoming Mails in Telegram
To connect your Gmail Inbox to your Telegram account, you need the help of Gmail bot. Here are the steps to do it.
Note: the screenshots are taken from the desktop version of Telegram. You will have a more or less similar interface with the mobile version.
Open the Gmail bot in the Telegram app. To get started you can visit this Gmail bot link and allow it to open the Telegram client. Alternatively, you can also send a direct message to “@gmailbot.”
You will get a quick explanation message telling you what this bot can do. Click “Start” to continue.
To enable the bot to do its job, you need to authorize it to set up Gmail integration.
The bot will try to open the Gmail integration link. Tap “Open” to proceed.
Choose one of your Gmail accounts that you want to use with Telegram.
You need to allow Gmail bot for Telegram to manage your Gmail account via Telegram. Click the “Allow” button.
After everything is set up correctly you will have a channel dedicated to your Gmail and will start receiving emails in your Telegram client.
Managing Emails in Telegram
Now that your emails go wherever your Telegram goes, how do you manage them? Even though the interface is different from your usual email client, it’s pretty straightforward.
When you open your Gmail “conversations” you will see short snippets of all the incoming messages. Below the snippets are the available options. You can view the complete message by clicking the “Show More” button or access more “Actions.”
Under the “Actions” button you can find common email commands such as reply, forward, archives, delete, etc.
You can access more commands by simply typing the slash ( / ). There are four available commands:
- /start – to authorize another Gmail account
- /new – to compose new email
- /settings – to adjust notification settings
- /stop – to turn off email notifications
To keep your Telegram from being a notification hell, you can choose which emails that you want to receive via the “/settings > Blacklist” command.
The Disadvantages
Gmail bot gives Telegram users the convenience of managing email without ever leaving the Telegram environment, but it also comes with some drawbacks.
The most obvious one is the need to be selective in filtering which emails should go into your Telegram and which ones should be skipped. If you just let any mail go in, your Telegram will be cluttered with emails in no time.
It’s also advisable not to connect too many accounts, as there’s no way to sort which emails belong to which account.
And while the bot is perfect for quick replies, the interface is not really user-friendly for composing long emails.
In short, the Gmail bot for Telegram is great if you use it to receive your most important emails and give quick replies.
What do you think about integrating your Gmail with Telegram?
Jeffry Thurana is a creative writer living in Indonesia. He helps other writers and freelancers to earn more from their crafts. He’s on a quest of learning the art of storytelling, believing that how you tell a story is as important as the story itself. He is also an architect and a designer, and loves traveling and playing classical guitar.
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