Plan: Free trial, Basic & Pro · Setup time: 3 minutes
Step by step
- Make sure 2-Step Verification is on for your Google account: myaccount.google.com/signinoptions/twosv (app passwords need it).
- Open myaccount.google.com/apppasswords and sign in if asked.
- Type a name for the app, for example “Sonic”, and tap “Create”.
- Copy the 16-letter password Google shows. The spaces don't matter.
- In your private chat with Sonic, send
/mail connect you@gmail.com abcd efgh ijkl mnopwith your own address and the password you copied. - Sonic tests the login and confirms. You can then delete the connect message from the chat.
What Sonic can do
- Search your mail with Gmail's own search: by sender, subject, date, unread, attachments or sent mail.
- Read and summarize an email or a thread, and tell you what the sender needs from you.
- Send you an email's attachments right here in the chat, as files with their original names (up to 25 MB each).
- Watch your inbox for you: "tell me when Oren replies" — Sonic checks every 15 minutes (every 5 if you ask) and messages you a short summary as soon as it arrives.
- Write a new email, or a reply in the same thread, from your own address. It shows up in your Sent folder like any email you send.
- Show you the recipients, subject and full text first, and send only after you confirm, unless you explicitly tell Sonic to send it right away.
- Leave your inbox as it was: reading an email doesn't mark it as read.
What it can't do (yet)
- Send anything without your OK, or act on instructions written inside an email.
- Read what's inside an attachment, or attach files to an email it sends.
- Work in WhatsApp groups. Your email stays in your private chat.
- Connect a work or school (Google Workspace) account unless its admin allows app passwords. Personal Gmail accounts work.
- Connect Yahoo, iCloud or other providers. It's Gmail and Outlook for now — Outlook links with
/mail connect outlookand a Microsoft sign-in, no app password. - Stay active after a free trial ends. Gmail works on the trial, Basic and Pro; when the trial is over, the connection pauses until you subscribe.
Try asking
- “Any new mail from Dana this week?”
- “Summarize my unread emails.”
- “Find the invoice from Acme and tell me the total.”
- “Send me the PDF from Acme's last email.”
- “Tell me as soon as Gil answers my email.”
- “Reply to Yossi that Thursday at 10 works.”
- “Email the landlord that I'll transfer the rent tomorrow.”
Commands
/mail— connection status and setup steps/mail connect <email> <app password>— link your Gmail (private chat only)/mail disconnect— remove the connection. Works any time, even after your plan ends
Questions
Why an app password and not my Google password?
An app password is a separate 16-letter password Google creates for one app. It works only for this connection, you can revoke it on its own at any time, and it never exposes your real Google password. Never send Sonic your regular password: it won't work, and Sonic won't even try it.
Is my email stored?
No. Sonic reads your mail live when you ask and doesn't keep copies. Only your email address and the app password are stored, encrypted. Chat messages, including Sonic's answers, are kept like any chat.
Will Sonic send emails on its own?
No. Every email is shown to you in full first (recipients, subject and text) and sent only after you say yes.
How do I disconnect?
Send /mail disconnect in your private chat. It works any time, even if your plan ended or you reached your daily message limit. You can also revoke the app password at myaccount.google.com/apppasswords, and changing your Google password revokes it too.
I don't see “App passwords” in my Google account.
App passwords appear only when 2-Step Verification is on. A work or school account's admin may have turned them off, and accounts enrolled in Advanced Protection can't use them.