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Google Workspace integration

If you work in Google Workspace, a lot of customer contact sits in Gmail and a lot of planning in Google Calendar. An integration puts that data on the customer in your CRM, creates an account as soon as someone joins and saves documents straight into the right Drive folder.

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Google WorkspaceOffice and collaboration · Google
  • Gmail goes back and forth with Your other systems
  • Google Calendar goes back and forth with Your other systems
  • Drive files goes back and forth with Your other systems
  • Users and groups goes back and forth with Your other systems
Your other systemsSuch as Pipedrive, ChatGPT

Built for clients including Tata Steel, M&G Investments, Digistore24, Toppers in Concert, Bar-le-Duc and Loogman

What you exchange

This is the data organisations most often let flow between systems. Which of it matters to you depends on where work is getting stuck today.

Gmail

Emails with customers that belong on the contact or deal in your CRM, or a shared inbox where enquiries need to come in as a lead or ticket. An integration can also send or draft emails on behalf of a user.

Google Calendar

Appointments for salespeople, engineers or advisers. An integration puts appointments from a scheduling system into the calendar, or turns a customer meeting into an activity in the CRM.

Drive files

Quotes, contracts and project folders. For a new customer or project, an integration creates a folder with the right permissions and puts the link back in the CRM or project system.

Users and groups

With the Directory API, you create, update and delete accounts and manage groups. So a new starter from the HR system has an account on day one, and access is gone as soon as someone leaves.

Contacts

With the People API, you read and manage contacts. Handy when field staff want customer details from the CRM on their phone without copying them over by hand.

Popular integrations

For each combination: which data moves back and forth, what the standard integration does and what to watch out for.

Off the shelf or custom

Not always. If an existing integration for Google Workspace does exactly what you need, we'll tell you.

What already exists

The Google Workspace Marketplace has add-ons and apps from other vendors. Many CRMs have their own integration: Pipedrive syncs email, calendar, contacts and Drive and has a Gmail add-on, HubSpot logs emails from Gmail, and Salesforce brings in email and meetings with Einstein Activity Capture.

Google also has its own automation. With Workspace Studio, you build flows across Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Chat and Sheets, and to a few external apps such as Salesforce, Asana and Mailchimp. Workspace Studio is included in the Business and Enterprise editions.

Those standard routes work per user or per flow. They stop where a process has to work for the whole organisation, such as creating accounts from the HR system, or where a shared inbox has to feed several systems.

When you need custom work
  • Managing accounts, groups and access from your HR or payroll system.
  • A shared inbox that puts enquiries, orders or invoices into the right system.
  • Creating Drive folders per customer or project, with permissions that follow along when someone changes team.
  • Putting appointments from a scheduling system into engineers' or advisers' calendars, and reporting changes back.
  • An integration that is also used outside your own organisation, and so has to go through Google's verification.
How it works technically

One API per product

Each product has its own REST API: the Gmail API, the Calendar API, the Drive API, the People API and, for user management, the Directory API in the Admin SDK. They all use OAuth 2.0.

Working on behalf of users

An organisation-wide integration often uses a service account with domain-wide delegation. A super admin grants that service account access to specific scopes in the Admin console, after which it works on behalf of users. Because the user doesn't consent to that themselves, grant only the scopes that are needed.

Push notifications

Gmail reports changes through Cloud Pub/Sub, and you have to renew that watch at least every seven days. Calendar and Drive use watch channels to an HTTPS endpoint, which you replace yourself before they expire. A notification only says that something has changed; you request the details afterwards.

Scopes and verification

Scopes for reading or changing Gmail are restricted. An app for users outside your own organisation that stores or transmits such data has to go through Google's verification and a security assessment. An internal app, used only by your own Workspace organisation, isn't reviewed by Google.

No more password-based integrations

Since 14 March 2025, IMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV, SMTP and POP no longer work with a plain password for Google accounts. An integration has to use OAuth.

AI in between

An integration moves data. In between, AI can read, sort and prepare a suggestion. Where it matters, a person decides.

Gemini in Gmail and Workspace Studio

Gemini summarises email threads in Gmail and helps with replies in the side panel. In Workspace Studio, you build flows with Gemini's help, for example: save invoice attachments to a fixed Drive folder. For work that stays within Google Workspace, that's often enough.

Where Gemini stops

Gemini works with what's in Workspace, and Workspace Studio supports only a limited number of external apps. If a summary of a customer email needs to land on the right deal in your CRM, or an enquiry first has to be checked against your ERP, you need an integration.

A concrete example

A customer emails a change to an order. AI summarises the email, looks up the order in the ERP and puts a draft reply in the account manager's Gmail drafts. They check it and send it. A change to price or lead time is made by a person.

Where it goes wrong

A watch that expires

A Gmail watch you don't renew within seven days, or a Drive channel on a file that expires after a day, stops delivering notifications. There's no error message. Schedule the renewal and monitor it.

Notifications that get dropped

Google doesn't always deliver push notifications. Gmail even drops notifications above one per second per user. So fetch the change history regularly, to make sure you don't miss anything.

Too many permissions through delegation

Domain-wide delegation with a broad Gmail scope gives a service account access to every mailbox in your organisation. Limit the scopes, keep the key safe and regularly check in the Admin console which apps have access.

Verification that turns up later

An integration that started as an internal app and later also has to work for customers or other organisations suddenly needs Google's verification, with a security assessment for restricted scopes. Allow for that from the start.

How we build an integration

  1. What goes where

    Which data moves, in which direction, and which system wins when two values differ. That is written down before anything gets built. For this integration, that means: Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive files, Users and groups, Contacts.

  2. Fields and rules

    For every field, how it translates between the systems: statuses, VAT codes, general ledger accounts, item numbers. And what happens with a duplicate or a missing value. For this integration, that means: One API per product, Working on behalf of users, Push notifications, Scopes and verification, No more password-based integrations.

  3. Testing with real cases

    In a sandbox or test administration, with the exceptions you actually run into: credit notes, partial deliveries, changed customer details.

  4. Live, with logging and monitoring

    Every sync is logged, and when something fails, someone gets an alert. If a vendor changes its API, we update the integration.

The Your Tech Club team at the office in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Who you'll talk to

No account manager. You talk to someone who builds integrations themselves, and who will tell you when a standard integration is enough.

Joey van VlietJoey van VlietFounder
Yassine SeghrouchniYassine SeghrouchniFounder
  • Office on the Duivendrechtsekade in Amsterdam
  • ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, certified by Kiwa
  • 500 projects delivered
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Frequently asked questions

Which Google APIs do I need for an integration?

That depends on what you're exchanging. For email the Gmail API, for appointments the Calendar API, for files the Drive API, for contacts the People API and for accounts and groups the Directory API in the Admin SDK. They all use OAuth 2.0.

Does our integration need to be reviewed by Google?

Not if it's an internal app used only by your own Workspace organisation. An app for external users with restricted scopes, such as reading Gmail, does have to go through verification. If that app stores or transmits such data, a security assessment is required as well.

Can an integration work on behalf of all employees?

Yes, with a service account and domain-wide delegation. A super admin sets in the Admin console which scopes the service account may use. Because the account can then access data without the user's consent, grant only the scopes that are really needed.

Our old Gmail integration has stopped working. Why?

It may have signed in with a username and password over IMAP or SMTP. Since 14 March 2025, that no longer works for Google accounts; integrations have to use OAuth. The fix is to rebuild the integration on OAuth or the Gmail API.

Can I give new employees a Google account automatically?

Yes. With the Directory API, you create an account from your HR or payroll system, add someone to the right groups and delete the account when they leave. The HR system then leads, and Google Workspace follows.

How quickly does my CRM see a new email or appointment?

With push notifications, your integration doesn't have to wait for the next check. For Gmail that runs through Cloud Pub/Sub, for Calendar and Drive through a webhook. Because notifications are sometimes delayed or dropped, a periodic check fills the gaps.

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Sources

The technical facts on this page come from the vendors' official documentation, checked on 19 September 2026. Vendors change their APIs and limits; when we build an integration, we always check the current state.