Gmail Integration and Sync
Gmail Integration and Sync is the area of Salesforce Setup that controls how an org connects to Google Workspace for sales email and calendar work.
Definition
Gmail Integration and Sync is the area of Salesforce Setup that controls how an org connects to Google Workspace for sales email and calendar work. It groups three things: the Gmail Integration itself (the Chrome extension and Google Workspace add-on that show Salesforce records inside Gmail), the capture engine that pulls emails and events into Salesforce (Einstein Activity Capture today, Lightning Sync in older orgs), and the per-user step that links each rep's Google account to Salesforce.
This is where an admin switches on the org-wide capability, picks a sync configuration, and assigns the users who get it. It does not configure anything on the Google side. That work happens in the Google Admin console. From Salesforce, the integration is a capability flag, and the real data movement runs over OAuth tokens and the consent each user grants when they install the add-on.
How the Setup node, the capture engine, and the per-user link fit together
The org-wide toggle and the Lightning Experience requirement
The top of the Gmail Integration page in Setup is a single switch that lets users work with Salesforce while they are in Gmail. Turning it on allows the Salesforce Chrome extension to draw its panel inside the Gmail window for any user who has the right permission. The feature runs in Lightning Experience. An org still on Salesforce Classic sees a notice and cannot turn the toggle on, so a Classic-only team has no way to enable the integration from this page. The same Setup area exposes a set of options that shape what the panel can do, including whether reps can log emails to multiple matching records, whether they see suggested records, and which application pane appears in the sidebar. Admins usually start here, confirm the org is in Lightning Experience, flip the main switch, then move on to the supporting settings. Nothing about flipping this toggle pushes the integration to a single user. It only opens the door so that users who later install the extension and consent through OAuth can see Salesforce data next to their mail.
Enhanced Email and how logged mail is stored
Before reps start logging email, an admin should turn on Enhanced Email. With Enhanced Email on, a logged message is saved as an Email Message record that keeps the full headers, the body, and the attachments. Without it, Salesforce falls back to an older pattern where the email lands as a Task of subtype Email, and the body can be truncated. The modern Gmail Integration assumes Enhanced Email is on. Features like replying or forwarding from inside Salesforce, handling several recipients, and relating one email to more than one record depend on the Email Message object existing. A common mistake is enabling the Gmail panel first and skipping Enhanced Email. Reps then get a sidebar that quietly creates thin Task records, and the team loses most of the value they were promised. Because the storage model is hard to change after activity has accumulated, it pays to settle the Enhanced Email decision up front rather than retrofit it later across thousands of logged messages.
Einstein Activity Capture, the current capture engine
Einstein Activity Capture, often shortened to EAC, is the engine that watches a connected Google account and pulls in emails and events without a rep clicking Log Email each time. It has its own page in Setup, next to Gmail Integration. There an admin creates a configuration, points it at a source (Google or Microsoft), chooses how captured activity is shared, and assigns the users who should be captured. The sharing setting matters for privacy. Choosing to share everything means every captured email body becomes visible to other users with EAC access, which is rarely what a security team wants by default. EAC stores captured emails and events in an activity store and surfaces them on the activity timeline of related contacts, leads, accounts, opportunities, contracts, and quotes. Beyond plain capture, EAC is the path Salesforce ties to its AI and agent features, so building on it keeps the door open to those capabilities. For a new org, EAC is the engine to choose, and the Gmail panel plus EAC together cover both the manual and automatic sides of activity logging.
Lightning Sync and its April 2027 retirement
Lightning Sync is the older capture and sync engine that predates EAC. It still shows up in some orgs under its own Setup node, and it syncs contacts and events between Salesforce and a Google or Microsoft mailbox. New orgs do not get it. Salesforce has set Lightning Sync to retire in April 2027, and recommends moving to Einstein Activity Capture before then using the Lightning Sync migration tool. There is an earlier and harder deadline for Microsoft users. Microsoft retires Exchange Web Services for Microsoft 365 in October 2026, so any Lightning Sync configuration that authenticates through EWS stops capturing Microsoft data once that happens. Salesforce advises completing the migration by August 2026 to stay ahead of it, then upgrading to Microsoft Graph authentication from the Einstein Activity Capture settings. Migrating is a real project, not a switch. You move the user set to a new EAC configuration, confirm the sharing model, and reconcile the gap between the old sync data and the new activity store. Planning the cutover early avoids a scramble against the Microsoft date.
Per-user enablement and the OAuth handshake
Turning on the org-wide setting enables nobody on its own. Each rep has to install the Salesforce Chrome extension, add the Google Workspace add-on, and complete an OAuth handshake that links their Google account to Salesforce. That handshake stores a refresh token tied to the user, granted through a connected app for the Gmail integration. From then on, the extension can read Salesforce records and write logged emails using that token. If a rep disconnects, or an admin revokes the connection, the token is gone and no new logs can be made until the user reconnects and consents again. This per-user model is why a rollout can look healthy in Setup while individual reps still see nothing useful. The org toggle is on, but a rep who never installed the add-on, or whose consent was blocked, has no working link. Treating installation and consent as their own rollout step, with clear instructions and a way to confirm each user actually connected, separates a clean launch from a support queue full of confused reps.
The Google Workspace admin side and the most common blocker
Salesforce controls only its half of this integration. The Google half lives in admin.google.com, where the Workspace admin decides whether the Salesforce add-on is allowed for an organizational unit. If the add-on is not allow-listed for a rep's unit, that rep hits a Google warning that blocks the OAuth consent, and the link never completes. This single step is the most common rollout blocker, and it fails silently for whole teams. An admin can switch on the Salesforce toggle, hand reps install instructions, and watch nothing work because the Workspace allow-list was never updated. Coordinating with the Workspace admin before launch, and confirming the add-on is allowed for every relevant unit, removes the problem before reps ever see it. The integration also reaches the calendar. The same Google add-on extends into Google Calendar, and EAC captures meetings as events in the activity store, with event sync behavior governed by the EAC configuration. Email and calendar share one setup path, so the Workspace coordination covers both.
How to set up the Gmail Integration and capture in Salesforce
Bring up the Gmail Integration in Lightning Experience, turn on the supporting settings first, then connect the capture engine and the users. Do this with the Google Workspace admin lined up.
- Confirm Lightning Experience and turn on Enhanced Email
Make sure the org is in Lightning Experience, since the Gmail toggle is blocked in Classic. In Setup, enable Enhanced Email so logged mail is stored as Email Message records instead of truncated Tasks.
- Turn on the Gmail Integration
In Setup, open Gmail Integration and flip the switch that lets users access Salesforce while working in Gmail. Review the sidebar options, such as logging to multiple records and showing suggested records.
- Set up Einstein Activity Capture
Open the Einstein Activity Capture page, create a configuration with Google as the source, choose a sharing model deliberately, and assign the users who should have emails and events captured.
- Coordinate the Google Workspace allow-list
Work with the Workspace admin to allow-list the Salesforce add-on for every relevant organizational unit in admin.google.com, so reps are not blocked at the OAuth consent.
- Have each rep install and connect
Direct reps to install the Chrome extension and the Google Workspace add-on, then complete the OAuth handshake. Confirm each rep actually connected before calling the rollout done.
The main org-wide switch that enables the Gmail sidebar. Requires Lightning Experience and is blocked in Salesforce Classic.
Stores logged emails as full Email Message records. Turn this on before reps start logging or they get thin Task records.
Controls who can see captured emails and events. Sharing everything exposes every captured body to other EAC users, so choose with privacy in mind.
The set of reps assigned to the EAC configuration. Only assigned users have their Google activity captured automatically.
- The org toggle does not enable any single rep. Each user must install the add-on and complete OAuth before the link works.
- Skipping Enhanced Email gives reps a sidebar that creates truncated Task records instead of full Email Messages.
- Lightning Sync retires in April 2027, and EWS-based Microsoft configurations stop capturing after Microsoft retires EWS in October 2026. Migrate to EAC ahead of those dates.
- A missing Google Workspace allow-list blocks the OAuth consent for whole teams and fails silently, so coordinate with the Workspace admin first.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Gmail Integration and Sync.
- Set Up the Integration with GmailSalesforce
- Einstein Activity CaptureSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Gmail Integration and Sync.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. How does Salesforce's multi-tenant model affect Gmail Integration and Sync?
Q2. Who can benefit from understanding Gmail Integration and Sync?
Q3. What does Gmail Integration and Sync represent in the Salesforce Platform?
Discussion
Loading discussion…