Obvious/Help Center

Email Integration

Published April 6, 2026 · Last updated April 6, 2026 · 5 min read

Note: Email integration is in beta and available to a limited number of workspaces. Contact help@obvious.ai to request access.

This guide walks you through connecting your email account to Obvious and sending, reading, and replying to email without leaving your workspace.

The Quickest Way: Ask the Agent

Open a thread and tell the agent what you need. It handles the rest.

Draft an email to jamie@acme.com letting them know we're pushing the launch to March 15

The agent composes the email and shows you a preview card right in the chat. You can edit the subject, body, and recipients before you send — nothing goes out until you click Send.

A few more prompts worth trying:

  • "Find the last email from our design vendor"

  • "Reply to that thread and ask for the updated timeline"

  • "Search my inbox for anything from @notion.so this week"

The agent can read, search, compose, and reply. If your email account is connected, it sends directly. If it isn't, the preview card gives you an Open in Gmail or Open in Outlook button so you can send from there.

Connecting Your Email Account

Connecting your account lets the agent send email on your behalf and search your inbox — no copy-pasting required.

  1. Open Settings → Connectors.

  2. Find Gmail or Outlook in the list and click Connect.

  3. Sign in with your email account and authorize Obvious.

That's it. Once connected, the agent can send directly from the preview card and pull up your full inbox when you ask.

Tip: You don't have to connect an account to use email in Obvious. The agent can still compose messages for you — you'll just send them from Gmail or Outlook yourself.

What You Can Do With Email in Obvious

Compose and Send

Ask the agent to draft an email or write one from a prompt. The agent builds a preview card with your recipients, subject, and body. Review it, make edits if needed, and hit Send.

If you have CC or BCC recipients, include them in your prompt:

Send an email to alex@acme.com, CC dana@acme.com, about the Q3 renewal timeline

Ask the agent to find specific emails or check your inbox:

Show me my latest emails from this week

Search for emails about "contract renewal"

The agent pulls up summaries first. Ask it to open a specific email to see the full thread.

Reply in Thread

When you're looking at an email, ask the agent to reply:

Reply to that email and confirm we're good to proceed

The reply goes out in the same thread, keeping the conversation intact.

Drafts

The agent can create and manage drafts for both Gmail and Outlook:

Create a draft to the sales team about the new pricing tiers

Drafts are saved natively in your connected account — ready to review and send when you're ready.

You can also ask the agent to list your drafts, update a draft, or delete one.

Attachments

The agent can list and download email attachments for both Gmail and Outlook connections.

To see what's attached to an email:

What attachments are on that last email from the legal team?

To download an attachment:

Download the contract PDF from that email

The agent retrieves the file and gives you a download link valid for 30 minutes. Attachments up to 25 MB are supported.

You can also attach a file to a draft before sending:

Add the Q4 report to that draft

Note: Attaching files to drafts (add_attachment) is available for Outlook only. Listing and downloading attachments works for both Gmail and Outlook.

Shared Mailboxes (Outlook only)

If your team uses a shared Outlook mailbox — like a support inbox or a shared team address — the agent can read and send from it on your behalf.

Just tell the agent which mailbox to use:

Check the support@acme.com inbox for any new tickets this morning

Reply to that email from the support mailbox

This is useful for team inboxes where multiple people need to respond from the same address.

Note: Shared mailbox support is available for Outlook only. You need to have access to the shared mailbox in Outlook for this to work.

How the Agent Works With Email

The agent shows you everything before it sends. When it composes an email, you get a preview card in the chat with:

  • Recipients (To, CC, BCC) displayed as tags

  • Subject line you can edit

  • Body you can review and modify

  • Send button (when your account is connected)

  • Open in Gmail / Outlook option (always available)

The agent never sends an email without your approval. You're always in control of what goes out.

Troubleshooting

The agent can't find my emails. Make sure your account is connected in Settings → Connectors. If it shows as connected but the agent still can't access your inbox, try disconnecting and reconnecting the account.

My Outlook drafts or attachments aren't working. These features require a native Outlook connection. If you connected Outlook through a third-party bridge, disconnect it and reconnect using the Outlook option directly in Settings → Connectors.

Something else is off. Email help@obvious.ai and include what you tried and what happened — the team can dig into the specifics.

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