How to use Gmail from Outlook.com Webmail interface

The new webmail from Microsoft, Outlook.com, is worth your love. The look, combined with other features, makes your email management better than any other webmail I can recall. Not only that, you get to create aliases with different inboxes so that you can divide work email from personal and educational without creating different accounts for each. To further ease your email management, you can set up Outlook to fetch emails from your other email accounts. And then, you can also reply using the other webmail providers without actually leaving Outlook.

This article explains how to set up Outlook to fetch emails from Gmail and send emails from Gmail using Outlook.

Set up Outlook.com to Fetch emails from Gmail

To set up this step, you must log in to Gmail first. Open your Gmail account and go to Settings. To get there, you will have to click the icon showing “gear”. When you click it, a drop-down menu appears with many options. You need to click on Settings. See the image below for an idea of how to get to the Settings of Gmail.

When the settings open in your browser window, click to activate the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. Click on Add a forwarding address. You will get a dialog box where you can enter an email address.

It is the place where you need to enter your outlook.com email address. After entering the outlook email address, ensure you have entered it correctly and click Next. You will get another dialog box asking for your confirmation. Click Proceed.

You will now need to sign in to your outlook account. Go to your inbox, where you can see an email from Google. Open this email and click the link that Google sent you to verify that you asked Gmail to forward all emails to Outlook.

Upon clicking the link, you will be taken to your Gmail account. Go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP page if not automatically redirected, and make sure you have selected Forward a copy of this mail to <your outlook.com ID>. You can also keep a copy of forwarded messages in your Gmail inbox. Click Save and return to Outlook to set it up for sending mails from your Gmail account.

Set up Outlook.com to Send emails from Gmail

You now need to set up outlook.com to send emails from your Gmail account. Remember that it will be Outlook that sends emails using your Gmail account, so the header of your outgoing emails (when you select your Gmail ID in From drop-down list) will appear as Sent from <your outlook ID> on behalf of <your Gmail ID>.

Click on the “gear” icon that represents Settings in the outlook.com account. From the drop-down list, select More email Settings.

You will get a list of settings you can customize for your outlook account. Click Managing your Account. From the list of available options, click Sending/Receiving Emails From Another Account. In the dialog box that appears, click Add Another Account To Send From. Enter your Gmail account ID and then click Send Verification Email.

Next, you need to verify that you intend to use outlook.com to send emails using your Gmail account. To do this, open your Gmail again. You should be able to see an email from outlook.com. Open the mail and click the verification link. You will be taken to the outlook.com page. You need not do anything more at this point.

You are all set to receive and send emails using Gmail from your outlook account. When you compose a new message, you can select your Gmail account from the list of accounts in the drop-down box saying From… If you are replying to the email you got from your Gmail account, outlook.com will automatically send it through your Gmail account.

This explains using Gmail from Outlook. If you face any problems setting this up, drop us a note.

Why can’t I add Gmail to Outlook?

If you cannot get your email from your Google account into Outlook, you need to check with the IMAP or SMPT settings.  You will not only need to configure the SMPT, but you will also need to ensure that TSL, SSL, and the ports are configured correctly.

Is Gmail a POP or IMAP?

It supports both but configures only one of them. When using POP, there will be no sync between the client and the server. If you want to keep both sides in sync, make sure to use IMAP.