Gmail Help

Gmail allows applications to connect in 3 different ways.

• Password-less connection using something called OAuth 2 authentication
• Using 2 step-authentication with an App Specific Password
• Using traditional authentication with your Primary UserName and Password with the setting Use Less Secure Apps turned ON

Note: I’m working on some videos to take you through all these scenarios.

The recommended option for eNotify is to use password-less authentication. You can use this form of authentication as long as your email account is managed by the Android device.

• On the Android device, do: Global Settings -> Accounts -> Add Account -> Google
• In eNotify choose: Accounts -> Add -> Gmail -> Select your GMail address
• The account will be automatically created for you.
• Press “Check Connection” you will be prompted to grant eNotify permission to access your email
• Press “Save” once the account options are setup

Using an App Specific Password

• In your global GMail settings, on your desktop browser for example, turn on 2 step authentication
• Create an app specific password for eNotify
• In eNotify choose: Accounts -> Add -> Gmail -> Select your email address
  [Or “Other” if it isn’t managed by the device]
• Enter the account details including the User Name and the 16 character App Specific Password
  Note: Do not enter the spaces. The password Google displays as:
  xxxx yyyy zzzz aaaa
  should be entered as:
  xxxxyyyyzzzzaaaa
• Press “Check Connection” to verify the User Name and password
• Press “Save” once the account options are setup

Using Primary UserName and Password

• In your global GMail settings, on your desktop browser for example, turn on the option “Allow Less Secure Apps”
• Note: This option only appears if 2 step authentication is set to OFF
• In eNotify choose: Accounts -> Add -> Gmail -> Select your email address
  [Or “Other” if it isn’t managed by the device]
• Enter the account details including the User Name and primary password
• Press “Check Connection” to verify the User Name and password
• Press “Save” once the account options are setup

FAQ

Is the password-less authentication as reliable as the primary User Name and password?

Honestly, I don’t know. It involves another layer of technology and managing access tokens. Also, you may need to periodically re-grant permission to eNotify if its permission gets turned off. For example, if you access your account from eNotify in two different countries, that could in theory trigger an automated removal of eNotify’s permission.

I’m just guessing that individual apps will get disabled more frequently than your primary account. So if reliability is your utmost concern, you may want to persist with User Name and password for now.

Why does GMail have so many different types of authentication?

It is due to how Google accounts have evolved. Traditionally, we only used our primary user name and password for all apps. Google then added app specific passwords via 2 step authentication. Firstly, so that 3rd party apps don’t need to know your password. But it also reflects the fact that our logins unlock much more than our GMail these days.

While it was a good idea in theory, many people found it confusing, not least of all because no one can clearly explain what “2 step authentication” has to do with “App Specific Passwords”. The naming and concepts are not user friendly.

With password-less authentication, eNotify simply sends a special Google token to the GMail server that asks you to grant eNotify permission to access your email account.

eNotify will continue to support “User Name” and “Password” authentication since it is the only option for most IMAP and POP3 accounts.