Can Inbox be used with gmail?

Jennifer Miller

We are trying to decide if we want to use the Inbox feature. I found a document that said “with the bulk email feature, owners can automatically open the email list in the default email client on their computer, or copy/paste.” Does that mean we can set it up to send Inbox messages to be sent/received through gmail? If so, is that set up through the domain settings? If it's possible, has anyone used it and can tell me the up/down sides?

Shannon Krise

@Jennifer Miller This is one of those things where the solution comes close to working as I would like, but stops just short of being really convenient. Inbox messaging sends messages only to the myschoolapp inbox. That being said, it does work really well if you are happy setting up your school communication using inbox messaging rather than email. Every group automatically becomes a distribution group that you can access just by entering the group name, and you can add multiple groups to a single message. The message icons to send an inbox message next to user names throughout the system are really handy. I also like that certain roles can view all inbox communication. With the correct user notification settings, an email including the full text of the message will be sent to the user's email. The thing that prevented us from going this route is that the notification email comes from a blackbaud sender, so parents could not reply to that email. To be honest, I'm starting to think that might have been an advantage, but at the time we decided against it.

If the user's computer is configured to open their preferred email client, it is pretty easy to send communication to a group. Every group has a roster, and on the roster page is a “Send communication to” button. When using this button, you will be offered the option you mention to open your email client and compose the message there. There are a couple issues here though. Larger groups (I think 100+) cannot be handled this way. You have to instead hit the “copy addresses” button to copy the address list and paste it into your email. The compose message box from your email account will open directly from myschoolapp if you have your default email client configured correctly which works great for messages that you can type and send quickly, but not as well for anything that takes time to put together. If you have both individual and bulk inbox messaging enabled, then there is a whole extra screen you have to go through to avoid the inbox messaging and get to the email option.

We are currently using a hybrid model where bulk inbox messaging is off, but individual messaging is on since our middle school uses inbox with students. Our faculty/staff do use the “Send communication to” option to send emails, but most copy and paste the emails rather than using the compose message option to open your default email client. We also have to remind teachers to set up the email notification for inbox messages so that if a parent does send an inbox message they are sure to see it.