Gmail

You can keep using Gmail while sending from your business domain through Taifa Mail. Outbound goes over the SMTP relay; inbound can be forwarded into Taifa Mail for routing and webhooks.

Use cases

• Send as hello@yourbusiness.co.ke from the Gmail you already use.
• Keep replies in Gmail while delivery runs on your domain reputation.
• Forward a Gmail address into Taifa Mail inbound for routing and webhooks.

Step 1: Prepare the prerequisites

Get three things in place before you open Gmail's settings:

1. A verified domain. The address you want to send as (for example hello@yourdomain.co.ke) must be on a domain that is verified in Taifa Mail. See Domain setup.
2. An SMTP credential for that domain. In the dashboard, go to Settings -> SMTP Credentials and create one. Each credential is scoped to a single verified domain, and the address you add in Gmail must be on that same domain. The username is generated for you and looks like 018d0740@yourdomain.co.ke; the password is shown only once, so copy both now. See Send via SMTP for details.
3. A forward rule for the address, pointing at your Gmail. Gmail verifies ownership by sending a confirmation email to the address you are adding. Create a forwarding rule for hello@yourdomain.co.ke that forwards to your Gmail address, so the confirmation email (and later, replies) land in the Gmail inbox you already use.

Step 2: Add a "Send mail as" address

1. In Gmail, click the Settings gear -> See all settings.
2. Open the Accounts and Import tab and scroll to the Send mail as section.
3. Click Add another email address.
4. Enter the name recipients should see and the address on your verified domain (for example hello@yourdomain.co.ke). Uncheck Treat as an alias if it is a separate identity (a shared or role address); leave it checked if it is simply another address for you. Click Next Step.
5. On the SMTP server step, enter:

6. Click Add Account.

Step 3: Confirm the address

Gmail now sends a confirmation email to the address you are adding. Thanks to the forward rule from Step 1, it arrives in your Gmail inbox, usually within a minute.

Open the email and either click the confirmation link or copy the verification code into the dialog Gmail is still showing. Once confirmed, the address appears under Send mail as and shows up in the From dropdown when you compose.

Step 4 (optional): Set sending defaults

Back in Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send mail as you can:

• Click make default next to the new address so Gmail composes from it by default.
• Under When replying to a message, select Reply from the same address the message was sent to. Combined with the forward rule, replies to mail that arrived for hello@yourdomain.co.ke go back out from that address automatically.

Step 5 (optional): Forward incoming Gmail into Taifa Mail

To route mail through Taifa Mail as well, add a Gmail filter that forwards matching mail to an address on your verified domain, then handle it with a forwarding rule.

Troubleshooting

"DNS lookup ... NXDOMAIN" (or a 553 error mentioning DNS). The SMTP Server field is wrong. Older instructions circulated with smtp.govconnect.ke, which does not exist. The correct host is mail.govconnect.ke. Edit the send-as entry and fix the server name.

"TLS Negotiation failed" or "certificate doesn't match" (sometimes a 550). Same root cause: a wrong host name. The TLS certificate is issued for mail.govconnect.ke, so any other host fails the certificate check. Set the server to mail.govconnect.ke.

"Authentication failed." Gmail is sending credentials the relay does not recognise. The most common causes:

• You entered the email address you are adding (or a mailbox password) instead of the generated SMTP credential username and password from Settings -> SMTP Credentials.
• The credential was deleted. Deleting a credential revokes it immediately; create a new one and update the send-as entry.

The confirmation email never arrives. Check that the forward rule for the address exists and points at your Gmail (see Step 1), then check your Gmail spam folder. You can also read the confirmation email directly in the Taifa Mail inbox UI at govconnect.ke, or click Resend email in Gmail's dialog after fixing the forward.

Native integration coming soon

A native Gmail connector with OAuth, so you can skip the manual SMTP setup, is on the roadmap.

Next steps

• SMTP relay
• Inbound and forwarding