Gmail integration

AI customer support for Gmail

Connect your support inbox in one OAuth click. New customer email gets an accurate, threaded reply from an agent trained on your own documents — usually within a minute.

Setup: a guided OAuth flow, no credentials to copy

  1. 1
    Pick the agent
    In Dashboard → Integrations, choose Gmail and select which agent should handle inbound mail from this mailbox.
  2. 2
    Approve access at Google
    You are redirected to the standard Google consent screen for the mailbox you want the agent to answer. No passwords or app passwords are typed into Chat Cactus — ever.
  3. 3
    Done — the mailbox is live
    The integration appears with the mailbox address as its label and starts answering mail that arrives from that moment on. Your existing inbox is never replayed.

How replies behave

  • Replies are threaded — sent in the same Gmail conversation with proper reply headers, so customers see one continuous thread.
  • The agent writes like email: salutation, sign-off, clean formatting, no emoji unless the customer used them first. Same brain as your website widget, different manners.
  • Quoted history is stripped before the model reads a message, and the agent never answers its own sent mail — no reply loops.
  • Replies are sent as proper text + HTML email, not markdown.

When a human should take over

Escalation is built in. When a customer asks for a person — or your escalation rules trigger — the AI stops replying on that thread, your team gets an email pointing at the escalations queue, and a teammate answers from the dashboard. The customer receives it as a normal email reply in the same thread. When it's resolved, the AI takes the next new conversation again.

Use cases

  • Support inbox triage: the agent answers the repetitive majority (order status wording, how-to questions, policy lookups) from your knowledge base and escalates the genuinely tricky threads to your team.
  • FAQ auto-reply: questions already answered in your docs get an immediate, sourced answer instead of sitting in the queue overnight.
  • After-hours coverage: mail that arrives at 2am is answered at 2am; anything needing a person is waiting, clearly flagged, in the morning queue.

Security notes

  • Access is granted through Google OAuth; Chat Cactus stores only the encrypted refresh token (AES-256-GCM at rest).
  • Disconnecting the integration revokes the grant at Google — not just locally.
  • The agent reads new inbound mail to answer it; conversations are stored as transcripts in your dashboard, where your team can review every exchange.
  • Your documents and conversations are used to answer your customers — see the security page for the full picture.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the AI send replies itself, or create drafts for review?

It sends the reply, threaded into the same conversation, so customers get an answer in minutes instead of waiting on a human pass. If you want a person in the loop, use escalation rules instead: escalated threads pause the AI and wait for your team.

Will it answer my whole existing inbox when I connect?

No. The first sync starts from the moment you connect — the existing backlog is never replayed. Only mail that arrives after connection is answered.

How quickly does it reply to a new email?

The mailbox is checked about once a minute, so replies typically go out within a minute or two of the customer’s email arriving.

What credentials do you store?

None that you type. Gmail connects through Google OAuth — no passwords or app passwords ever touch Chat Cactus. We store only the encrypted OAuth refresh token, and disconnecting the integration revokes the grant at Google.

Does it reply to its own emails or newsletters forever?

The agent skips mail it sent itself and self-addressed mail, and it strips quoted history from replies so the model reads only the new message. That prevents loops and keeps answers on-topic.

Do emails read like chat messages?

No. The agent adapts tone per channel: on email it writes a proper salutation and sign-off, uses restrained formatting, and skips emoji unless the customer used them first.

Your inbox, answered in minutes.

10 minutes from sign-up to your first answered customer message. Free forever plan, no card required to build.