GoKawiilImagine having an assistant that reads, drafts and sends emails without you even having to lift a finger. That's exactly what Claude can do once you connect it to your Gmail account. Thankfully, it's quite easy to set the whole thing up with Anthropic's Gmail connector, which bridges the gap between Claude and your inbox. Once Claude is plugged into your email, you can fine-tune the approval settings so you stay in control of every message that goes out. The connector is available for all plans, so you don't need a paid Claude subscription to use it.
Once connected, Claude can search and read your emails, draft replies and send or forward messages. It can even organize your inbox with labels and threads without needing any special commands or rigid templates. You just describe what you need, and Claude figures out the rest.
Approval controls are a key part of this entire experiment. By default, Claude asks for your consent before sending any email, replying to anything or even forwarding an email. Therefore, you get a chance to review before anything goes out. If you're wondering how this all works, let's go through how all settings work, how to adjust them if you prefer a more hands-off approach and just what options you have depending on your plan.