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“I want more email from strangers!”
If that is one of your wishes in life, then Google has great news for you: Now anyone with a Google Plus account can send you a Gmail message. Google is allowing Google Plus members to send Gmail messages to other Google Plus members without knowing their Gmail address.
Announced last week by Google, this feature allows people to send a Gmail message to anyone they have in a circle on Google Plus. You don’t have to have them in a circle, so anyone can send you a Gmail message even if they don’t know your Gmail address.
This feature is turned on by default, though you can change your settings to opt out so that people must use your Gmail address to send you a message.
How to Send a Gmail Message to a Complete Stranger via Google Plus
To send a Gmail message to someone on Google Plus, you first need to add them to a circle. Any circle will do, you can even create a new circle for people you want to email and name it something like “Complete Strangers I want to email without knowing their email addresses.”
Next, click on Compose and start typing in the “To” line. You will see a list of your Gmail contacts and below that a list of your Google Plus connections, a/k/a people you have in your Google Plus circles.
Click on the name(s) you want and begin typing your email message.
How to Opt Out of Receiving Gmail Messages from Google Plus
This feature is turned on by default, but you can opt out of it by adjusting your settings. As space on Gmail is limited for free accounts, I suggest turning off this feature. If you’re a fan of email messages from strangers or spam, feel free to leave the feature turned on (for now).
1. Click on the Gear icon in the upper right corner of your Gmail page and choose Settings from the drop-down menu.
2. Under the General tab, scroll down to Email via Google +
3. Click on the drop-down menu and choose which people you want to receive messages from:
- Anyone on Google +
- Extended Circles
- Circles
- No one
4. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
You can find out more information about Gmail and Google Plus from the Google answers page.
Where to Find Messages from Google Plus in Your Gmail Account
Gmail messages from Google Plus will go into your Social tab/folder, if you have one. There you can see if anyone has sent you a Gmail message from Google Plus.
See, Gmail Inbox tabs and category labels help page for more information about setting up a Social tab/folder for your Gmail account.
If you don’t have a Social tab/folder, email messages from Google Plus will land in your inbox.
What Else You Need to Know
People who use this feature to send you a Gmail message won’t see your Gmail address unless you reply to them.
People who aren’t in your circles can only send you one Gmail message from Google Plus unless you reply to them.
People don’t need your permission to add you to a circle on Google Plus.
This feature is being rolled out from Google over the next week so if you try to opt out and don’t see Email via Google + in the General section of your Gmail settings, that means the feature isn’t yet active for your Gmail account. Google will send you an email to your Gmail account before this feature becomes active for you.
You need to have both a Google Plus and a Gmail account for this feature to work.
This feature only works on the desktop version of Gmail. You won’t see the option to send Gmail messages to those in your Google Plus circles from mobile apps.
See also, Your Secret “Other” Facebook Messages to learn how Facebook deals with this issue.
Poll
What do you think of this new feature from Google Plus? Vote in today’s Wonder of Tech poll and let us know!
Your Thoughts
Are you excited about the connection between Gmail and Google Plus? Are you looking forward to receiving more email? Will you be using this feature to send email to others via Google Plus? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
This is something new 🙂
I already have mine enabled to ‘circles’, which means only those in my circles can email me from G+ presently. I guess all is well so far, or does one have to turn it to no one there too?
As you mentioned, this feature would come up next week, so we should ideally wait and watch, and perhaps unless both parties aren’t in each others circles, they cannot communicate through the emails, only one can if we receive their message.
I think this feature might work for those who want to send bulk messages to their G+ contacts, but that would sound like spamming to me, unless it’s a very important message to send people. Not sure how else would people want to send messages this way because most followers on G+ are strangers to us and we wouldn’t want to receive any email from them, leave alone reply back and reveal our own email IDs. Wait and watch might work better for me I guess.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, When I first joined Google Plus, someone was able to add their webinars to my Google calendar without my permission. This person had webinars several times a week, including the weekends. I had to hunt down how to change the settings for Google Plus right away then to stop this from happening.
I wanted to share with my readers not only what was changing at Google Plus/Gmail but also how to opt out of this new feature.
Yes, check back to see your settings after this feature has been launched for you. You may want to limit your choice to your circles once this feature is enabled for your Gmail account.
I agree, this definitely has a potential for spam, especially if you get messages from multiple people on Gmail who have you in their Google Plus circles.
Hello Carolyn,
It is good step for some people because everyone don’t want to meet with strangers.. It also affect our privacy… But still, it’s really a good feature to talk with your new sponsors, promoters, advertisers who want to build business relation with us…
Hi Himanshu, Yes, this new feature will be very useful to marketers who want to reach out to a wider audience. People who are overwhelmed by this feature may want to opt out but others may enjoy hearing from people who wouldn’t be able to reach them otherwise.
This article is very useful and informative. It’s really hard for the general users to note such things unless someone like you brings to light. Thanks for posting.
Hi Bhanu, Yes, sometimes finding out information about updates can be challenging. I try to write about updates that will affect many people and may require some interpretation. I’m glad you found this helpful.
Hi Carolyn,
Yet another informative and educative piece.
Yes,G+ is here to stay!
I get more traffic via G+
I like to receive mail via G+
And I suggest/guide others to G+
Thanks again for this useful post.
Keep up the good work.
Keep informed =D>
Philip
Hi Philip, That’s great you’re such a fan of Google Plus. You’re right, this feature makes using Google Plus much more valuable because you can now use it to reach out to others even if you don’t have their email addresses.
Thanks so much for your kind words and for sharing your thoughts here today!
Yes, Carolyn,
That is true, since its inception I opted for this and was using it more than any other social sites. Of course when i opted for the G+ comment option, whenever I post something in my blog pages it automatically takes to all my gmail contact apart from my other circles. Since I placed the AddToAny share button it is more easy to share all the other social sites. I am presently using http://www.addtoany.com/ at the bottom of my blog pages. Its really very user-friendly anybody who visit my page wants to share they need not copy the url and do it manual instead a simple click on this button it takes one to all the places. Thanks again for the feedback, this facility at G+ is really fantastic
Keep Going
Best
Phil :-bd :-bd :-bd
You’re making great use of Google Plus, Phil. Thanks for sharing your tips with us. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
This seems interesting. I have never really got into Google +, but I’ll just see what happens. As log as it doesn’t increase my spam, I’m not bothered. I took interesting pictures today. The weather was awful yesterday, today the traffic on the roads was awful, but I got some light. It’s too cold too or am I getting old!
Hi Mike, Yes, Google Plus is a great fit for some people and misses the mark for others. It may be a good way for your to spread the word about your artistic photographs. Google Plus displays images bigger than Facebook so I see quite a few photographers on the site.
Hello,
This seems very new to me as I don’t know that we can get messages at google plus. Secondly I must say google is forcing it’s users to sign up for gogole plus.
We must protect our privacy to enabling this feature.
Hi Samir, You’re right, Google is strongly encouraging people to join Google Plus. Now people must get a Google Plus account to comment on YouTube. Plus all who sign up for a Google account get a Google Plus account now.
It’s important to keep up with the updated features of both Gmail and Google Plus.
Hey Carolyn,
I think this is a great new feature – it would certainly be useful for building connections 😀
Of course, there is a potential for abuse. But, I think Google has already taken steps to prevent that…we could opt out of this.
Plus, the limitation of one email if they aren’t in our circles would prevent people from sending too many emails (bad news if we circle everyone who circles us!).
Anyways, thank you for sharing this news, Carolyn 🙂 Appreciate it!
Hi Jeevan, You’re right, there are those who circle everyone who circles them on Google Plus which would give even more access to your Gmail by complete strangers. If you do this and receive a lot of Gmail messages from strangers, you would definitely want to opt out of this feature.
Hi Carolyn,
I think this is a good feature,but I am equally afraid of my privacy while enabling this .
Hi Jithu, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Good point, privacy concerns are important. You may want to follow the steps and opt out of this feature if you don’t want strangers contacting you via Gmail.
Thanks for sharing this Carolyn, it’s good to know.
I went in and changed mine because from time to time I’ll receive emails from people I don’t know and aren’t in my circles. They’re usually asking me to go read their post or buy their product which of course you know I would prefer to not get. Not exactly the best way to grab my attention.
I’m sure there are more things I should pay attention in there but I’d need to probably take another couple weeks off to get caught up with everything I need to do. Oh well right!
Thanks again and hope you enjoy what’s left of this week. I’m going to do my best and try too.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, it’s difficult to keep up with all of the changes in social media. What seems to change the most frequently is the privacy settings often with the need for us to opt out if we want to retain the settings we had before.
You can leave the task of opting out until later if you aren’t bombarded by emails from Gmail strangers when this feature is enabled for your Gmail account. When you choose to opt out, you can follow the steps above to spend the minimal time on this task.
Hy Carolyn,
Thats the nice thing about big brands (Google, Facebook, Apple) they never realy communicate what they change or add. Privacy is kind of a hot topic these days and this feature is just another example of the things they can do. They don’t realy need your permission. You can almost compare it to the donor register for organs. In the Netherlands you are not a donor unless you fill in a form and state that you want to be a donor. Let’s say the organization just changed the rule so you are automatically a donor unless you tell otherwise, without communicating this to “everyone” kinda the same thing or am I babbling again… 🙂
Hi Ferdi, You’re right, it’s important to stay aware of updates to social media sites, especially ones that affect your privacy. In fairness to Google, it is sending email messages to its users when it activates this feature.
But many people may not pay attention to that notification, which is why I covered this topic here.
Yes, This feature is cool!
Specially to market the business online.People connected to us get in touch automatically with things which is essential to happens.Nice share by you, People would come to know about this feature in detail from your blog.
Hi Debu, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, you’re right, from a marketing perspective this new feature may be a new way for reaching out to a new potential audience. The Gmail messages must be crafted carefully to be sure that they don’t seem to be spammy.
Hi Carolyn,
Even i did not know earlier.But when i updated my gmail i get it and it really useful.It seprate the email as per their criteria and makes it easy for users.
You explained it in good manner.
Nice share