Migrating from the Email Settings API

This document covers the key differences between the Email Settings API and the Gmail API. You can use this guide to help migrate your app to the Gmail API.

Authorizing requests

Like the Email Settings API, the Gmail API uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol to authorize requests. One key difference is that Gmail API permissions are scoped to an individual user, rather than to the entire domain. This means authorizing a domain administrator account does not allow you to migrate mail for other users in the domain. Instead, you must use standard service accounts with domain-wide authority that are whitelisted in the Admin console to generate the appropriate authentication token.

The Email Settings API used the scope:

 https://apps-apis.google.com/a/feeds/emailsettings/2.0/ 

The equivalent scopes in the Gmail API are:

 https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.basic
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.sharing 

Protocol changes

The Email Settings API uses the XML based GDATA protocol. The Gmail API uses JSON. Since settings are mostly comprised of key/value pairs, payloads are conceptually similar between versions.

Example of creating a label:

 POST https://apps-apis.google.com/a/feeds/emailsettings/2.0/{domain name}/{username}/label
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<atom:entry xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:apps="http://schemas.google.com/apps/2006">
  <apps:property name="label" value="status updates" />
</atom:entry> 

 POST https://www.googleapis.com/gmail/v1/users/{username}/labels
{
   "name": "status updates"
} 

Use the provided Client libraries instead of directly implementing the protocol.

Managing labels

To manage labels in the Gmail API, use the Labels resource.

Other changes:

• When updating or deleting labels, the Gmail API references labels by ID instead of by name.

Managing filters

To manage filters in the Gmail API, use the Filters resource.

Other changes:

• If adding a user label does not already exist, it must be explicitly created using the labels.create method.

Managing send-as aliases

To manage send-as aliases in the Gmail API, use the SendAs resource.

Managing web clips

Web Clip settings are no longer available via the API.

Managing auto-forwarding settings

To manage auto-forwarding in the Gmail API, use the Settings resource.

Other changes:

• Forwarding addresses must be created and verified prior to use
• Forwarding addresses can be managed via the ForwardingAddresses resource.

Managing POP settings

To manage POP access in the Gmail API, use the Settings resource.

Managing IMAP settings

To manage IMAP access in the Gmail API, use the Settings resource.

Managing vacation auto-reply settings

To manage vacation auto-reply in the Gmail API, use the Settings resource.

Managing signature settings

To manage email signatures in the Gmail API, use the SendAs resource.

Other changes:

• Signatures are now managed per alias.

Managing language settings

To manage language settings in the Gmail API, use the Settings resource.

Please refer to the Managing Language Settings guide for more information.

Managing delegation settings

To manage delegation in the Gmail API, use the Delegates resource.

Other changes:

• General
  • To use any of the delegation methods (including delegates.create ) the delegator user must be enabled for Gmail. That means, for example, that the delegator user cannot be suspended in Google Workspace.
  • An email alias cannot be used as the delegate email input for any of the new methods. A delegate user must be referred to by their primary email address.
• delegates.create
  • This method can now be used to create delegate relationships across multiple domains belonging to the same Google Workspace organization.
  • This method can now be used for users which require a password change at their next sign in.
  • If successful, this method returns a Users.settings.delegates resource in the response body, rather than an empty response body.
  • If either of the delegator or delegate users are disabled (for example, suspended in Google Workspace) this method fails with an HTTP 4XX error instead of an HTTP 500 error.
• delegates.delete
  • This method can now be used to delete delegates with any verificationStatus , rather than just delegates which are accepted or expired .
• delegates.get
  • This is a new method, which might be preferable over the delegates.list method depending on need.

Managing general settings

General settings are no longer available via the API.