Learn how to check if an email has been replied to in Gmail using Google Apps Script.
“Gmail doesn’t have a built-in feature to check for replies, but you can use Google Apps Script to create a custom script that will automatically check for replies to your emails.”
Amit Agarwal has shared another practical tutorial for anyone looking to add more intelligence to their automated Gmail workflows. While Gmail organises messages into threads, it does not provide a simple out-of-the-box method to programmatically determine if a specific email has received a human response.
In his latest post, Amit explores the technical side of email headers: specifically how the Message-Id of an original email is referenced in the In-Reply-To and References headers of subsequent replies. This logic forms the basis for his Apps Script solution, which helps developers identify valid replies while ignoring automated clutter.
One aspect I found particularly interesting is the filtering logic used to try and separate human interaction from the rest. The script accounts for several common hurdles as it ignores out-of-office auto-responses, delivery failure notifications, and messages sent from the user’s own account. By checking the auto-submitted header and using regex to filter common bot addresses like no-reply or mailer-daemon, the solution ensures you only track meaningful engagement.
Crucially, this logic is not confined to the Google ecosystem. Because these headers follow standard email protocols, the detection works seamlessly even when recipients reply from external clients like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail.
As Amit notes, if you want to use this logic effectively, you should store the rfcMessageId and threadId in a Google Sheet or database immediately after sending. This approach allows you to run your reply-checking scripts at any time without losing the original context.
You can find the full code and detailed header explanations in Amit’s blog post.
This tutorial shows you how to publish AI agents to Google Workspace as Google Workspace add-ons, using Apps Script or HTTP endpoints. After your publish your add-on, your users can interact with the AI agents within their workflows.
Google has released a comprehensive new tutorial that demonstrates how to bridge the gap between complex AI agents and the daily workflows of Google Workspace users. The Travel Concierge sample uses the Agent Development Kit (ADK) to deploy a conversational, multi-agent AI directly into the Google Workspace platform.
While many AI demos focus on standalone chat interfaces, this solution stands out by implementing the agent as a Google Workspace Add-on. This means the AI isn’t just a browser tab; it is a helpful sidebar accessible directly within Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as well as a fully functioning Google Chat app.
Key Features for Developers
The sample provides a robust blueprint for developers looking to build “agentic” workflows. Key capabilities include:
Multi-Agent Architecture:Â The solution uses Vertex AI to manage a “Travel Concierge” that orchestrates sub-agents for specific tasks, utilising tools like the Google Maps Platform Places API and Google Search Grounding.
Context Awareness:Â In applications like Gmail, the agent can read the context of the currently selected email to help plan trips based on actual correspondence.
Rich User Interfaces:Â The add-on moves beyond simple text, utilising the Card framework to display rich widgets and interactive elements.
Cross-Platform Persistence:Â User sessions are managed by Vertex AI, ensuring that a conversation started in Google Chat can be seamlessly continued in a Google Doc sidebar.
Flexible Implementation
The Apps Script implementation demonstrates how to connect a standard Workspace Add-on to the powerful Vertex AI backend using UrlFetchApp. It serves as an excellent reference for handling synchronous execution limits and rendering complex agent responses within the constraints of the Add-on sidebar.
Whether you are looking to build a travel planner or a complex enterprise assistant, this sample provides the architectural patterns needed to bring your AI agents to where your users actually work.
The AI formula in Google Sheets is a powerful and easy way to use Gemini AI directly inside of your Google Sheets. In this example, we use the AI formula to generate draft emails providing feedback on student exam scores. Then we use AI to write Apps Script that moves the draft emails from our Sheet into drafts in our Gmail, ready to send.
For many, the process of drafting personalised emails from a list of contacts in Google Sheets is a tedious, manual task. It involves switching between tabs, copying and pasting data, and carefully composing each message. But what if you could automate the entire workflow, generating perfectly tailored draft emails in Gmail with the click of a button?
In a recent video tutorial, Google Developer Expert Ben Collins demonstrates a powerful and efficient method to achieve exactly this. He showcases how to combine the intelligence of the new AI() formula in Google Sheets with the automation capabilities of Google Apps Script to turn structured data into ready-to-review email drafts.
What makes this solution so compelling is that it’s more than just a clever solution; it’s a glimpse into the future of work in Google Workspace. As Google continues to embed AI and end-to-end automations like Workspace Flows, the ability to effectively guide these systems becomes paramount. Ben’s solution provides a perfect, practical sandbox for honing a crucial new skill of prompt engineering and mastering the art of communicating with Large Language Models.
To see the full demonstration and get started on your own prompting journey, be sure to watch Ben’s complete video.
🤖 AI-powered Gmail assistant that automatically analyzes emails and drafts responses using Google’s Gemini AI
Google is rapidly integrating Gemini across the Workspace platform, bringing powerful AI features directly into the tools we use every day. While these native integrations offer incredible value, developer-led solutions provide a tantalising glimpse into the future of hyper-personalised automation, especially as we look toward the potential of the new Google Workspace Flows. This is where the real magic begins, allowing for custom agents that can handle complex, multi-step tasks.
Google Developer Advocate Zack Akil has created one such example solution that turns your Gmail inbox into a smart, automated assistant. His open-source project, the “AI-got-this-gmail-delegator,” is a Google Apps Script that uses the Gemini API to analyse incoming emails, categorise them, and even draft replies based on your own knowledge and writing style.
This project is a great example of how to combine the power of Google Workspace automation with the intelligence of modern AI. The script works by:
Analysing Incoming Emails:Â When a new email arrives, the script sends the content to the Gemini API for analysis.
Providing Context:Â The AI’s analysis is guided by a “knowledge base” that you provide in a Google Doc. This could include your role, common responses, or specific project details.
Intelligent Triage:Â Based on the email’s content and your knowledge base, the script decides whether the email needs a reply, requires manual intervention, or can be archived.
Drafting Replies:Â For emails that need a response, the script uses Gemini to generate a draft reply in your own writing style, ready for you to review and send.
The entire process is logged in a Google Sheet, giving you a complete overview of your AI assistant’s activity.
What makes this project so compelling is its practicality and customisability. By modifying the Google Doc knowledge base and the writing style prompts, you can create a personalised email assistant that understands the nuances of your work.
To explore the code and set up your own AI email delegator, check out the project on GitHub.
In this video we build a Chat app as a Google Workspace add-on with Apps Script and extend it to other Workspace applications (Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides).
To see this new framework in action, Pierrick Voulet from the Google Developer Relations team has released a fantastic video tutorial, ‘Build a Chat app as a Google Workspace add-on with Apps Script’.
The ‘OOO Assistant’: A Practical Demonstration
The video centres on building an ‘Out-of-Office Assistant’ that can block out the user’s Calendar for the day and set a Gmail out-of-office auto-reply. The real magic is how this Chat-based logic extends into a full Workspace Add-on, available in the sidebars of Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides. This is achieved with minimal code changes, primarily by configuring the appsscript.json manifest to include:
A homepageTrigger to display a UI card in the add-on sidebar.
universalActions that reuse the exact same functions (blockDayOut(), setAutoReply()) originally built for the Chat quick commands.
The video provides a complete overview of the process, and you can get hands-on with the shared code yourself. For more technical details, check out the official Extend Google Chat documentation.
Today I had the task of implementing a newsletter for internal updates and decided to use Google Apps Script since I was already using it for managing the project data. Based upon past experiences with emails using HTML I need this area was full of landmines and I didn’t want to navigate through it. 💣
So I decided to use MJML with Google Apps Script.
Sending emails using Google Apps Script is a common task, however, creating HTML emails that render consistently across different email clients and that look visually appealing can be challenging.
Justin Poehnelt’s post on DEV Community, “Using MJML in Google Apps Script to Send Beautiful Emails,” offers a solution to this problem. MJML is a markup language that makes it easy to create responsive HTML emails. It removes some of the complexities of HTML email development, allowing users to focus on the content of their emails.
In the post, Justin explains how to use MJML with Google Apps Script to send beautiful, responsive emails. He also mentions that he has published a library, MJMLApp, that “hides the gnarly bits” of using MJML with Google Apps Script. This library is available on GitHub in the mjml-apps-script repo where you can find the library ID and basic usage information.
Are you overwhelmed by a cluttered inbox? If you’re a power Gmail user, you may already know about the plus addressing feature that allows you to create custom email variations by appending a + and a label to your email address. For example, username+shopping@gmail.
Are you tired of sifting through a mountain of emails every day? Gmail’s “plus addressing” feature can be a lifesaver, and with a little Google Apps Script magic, you can transform it into a powerful automation solution.
If you are not familiar ‘plus addressing’ is a feature of Gmail which allows you to create custom variations of your email address by adding a “+” symbol and a label after your username, but before the “@” symbol. For instance, if your email is [email protected], you can use [email protected] for newsletters. While these emails still land in your main inbox, this subtle tweak opens the door to some clever automations using Google Apps Script.
This blog post, written by Senior Product Designer Niyas V, provides a step-by-step guide on using Google Apps Script to automatically label and archive emails based on the “plus addressing” variations. The script scans incoming emails, extracts the label after the “+”, applies the corresponding Gmail label, and then neatly archives the thread. The post includes the complete script, instructions on setting up a time-driven trigger for automation, and clear steps to save, authorise, and test your creation.
This tutorial is a fantastic resource for developers looking to learn practical Gmail automation using Google Apps Script and a great starting point if you are thinking about building other solutions using your inbox.
As a Developer Advocate for Google Workspace, I live and breathe productivity tools. But even the most tech-savvy among us can have frustratingly simple oversights. My recurring pain point? Forgetting to turn on my Gmail vacation responder to automatically notify people of my absence before heading out of office.
Google Workspace Developer Advocate, Chanel Greco, has shared a clever solution to automate their Gmail out-of-office notification using Google Apps Script. Faced with the recurring problem of forgetting to set up the out-of-office notification, Chanel crafted a script that does the job based on Google Calendar events marked as ‘outOfOffice’.
Chanel’s project not only solves a personal problem but also demonstrates the benefits of Google Apps Script for task customization and productivity. By harnessing the power of Workspace APIs, you can create innovative solutions to automate routine tasks and streamline workflows.
Using Google Gemini API with Google Sheets to create personalized mail merges. An exploration in generative AI ‘function calling’
Google latest generative AI solution, Gemini, includes the capability to declare functions that the LLM can use in it’s response. The response includes the name of the function and the parameters the script needs to run the function.
The function isn’t executed by the LLM, but run with your code, which creates really interesting opportunities for Google Apps Script solutions. In particular, given user identity and authorisation is an integral part of Apps Script and how it integrates with other Google services it means solutions like personalised mail merges can be created in a couple of lines of code.
Follow the source link to find out more about function calling and exploring Gemini’s capabilities with data in Google Sheets.
Creating dynamic charts in the sidebar of your Google Workspace Add-on can be an effective approach to getting across a lot of meaning in a somewhat confined space. In this tutorial, we will use Google’s Chart API to generate a live chart, first from some static data and then live from an external data source like a Google Sheet. All with the help of a little Google Apps Script magic.
Here’s another great tutorial from Scott Donald which provides a detailed tutorial for including charts in a Google Workspace Add-on using the Card Service. The tutorial covers how you can embed dynamic chart data from a Google Sheet. Whilst targeted at Google Workspace Add-ons (Gmail and Drive) you should be able to easily modify this for cards used in Google Chat. The source tutorial includes a video giving an overview of the solution and if you want to take this project further you can signup for Scott’s Create and Publish Google Workspace Add-ons with Google Apps Script: Master Class.
