Many departments at Swarthmore have shared Shared email accounts that are read and responded to by more than one person. Examples are email accounts like "admissions" or "registrar". These accounts are configured as "delegated accounts" in Gmail and can be accessed directly from your personal Gmail account if your department or group utilizes one.
Accessing a Delegated Email Account
When you are granted access to a delegated email account, you can access it by clicking on your profile picture or email address for departments are generally set up as what are called "delegated accounts". Delegated accounts allow multiple users to share a single Gmail mailbox which can be accessed from within their personal Swarthmore mailboxes. This allows users with access to easily see when emails have been read and replied to by others, as well as the ability to respond to messages from within the delegated account. This provides secure access to a shared mailbox without requiring shared passwords. You can request a new delegated account from the ITS support portal (requires login).
Delegated accounts don't allow users to access advanced settings for the inbox and do not include Drive, Calendar, or Chat. It is possible to create a shared Google Drive space by using Google Groups to manage permissions to a folder, or by requesting a Google Shared Drive (requires login). Changes to who has access to a delegated account need to be done by ITS, and you can request access changes on our support portal (requires login).
If the users to a shared inbox are expected to change regularly you may want to consider using a Google Group for a shared inbox experience.
Accessing a Delegated Email Account
- Click on your profile picture in the upper-right corner of Gmail
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- (if you don't have a profile picture, it will display your first initial instead)
- Choose the shared email address from
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- this menu
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- . Delegated accounts will appear below the Manage your Google Account button.
- The delegated account will open in a new tab within your web browser.
The delegated email account will allow you to send and receive mail sent to the shared address and label or filter messages as you would in your own mailbox. Any mail organization that you perform will be seen by all delegates.
Any messages you send from the delegated account will have your name listed in addition to the account's name, so the sender will appear as: Your Name (sent by Delegated Account). Sent mail notices and direct replies to messages will go to the shared accountWhen sending an email from a delegated account, Gmail will note the sender as: “Delegated Account Name” (sent by “delegated account user”).
As a delegate, you can access the contacts of the shared account by clicking the Contacts link. Clicking the the To, Cc, or or Bcc links links in the mail compose window will also bring up your contacts.
You will not be able to change the delegated account's password or account settings, or chat as the shared account.