What CoIsland watches in Gmail

Each monitor kind brings its own query and its own card in the notch.

How to monitor Gmail from your Mac’s notch

Most of your inbox can wait. A CoIsland monitor runs one Gmail search on a schedule and speaks up only when a new email starts matching: a message from a client, a Drive comment that mentions you, an invitation to answer.

Each monitor is a ring in the notch that counts down to its next check, with the number of matching emails under it. When an email comes in, the notch opens for a few seconds with the monitor’s sound and lists it by its subject, sender and label. The body, the recipients and the attachments never show in the notch.

A monitor comes down to three choices:

What a Gmail alert shows

Click an email in the notch or in the alert list to open it in CoIsland: its sender, recipients, date, labels, the names of its attachments, and its body, read without marking it read. Images stay blocked until you click Load Images, because images in emails tell senders you opened them. Open in Gmail opens the thread in your browser.

Read-only, and on your Mac

CoIsland reads your mail over IMAP from your Mac, with no CoIsland server and no CoIsland account. It opens All Mail with EXAMINE, searches with Gmail’s X-GM-RAW, and reads with BODY.PEEK. It never sends, moves, labels, deletes or marks anything.

Connect Gmail covers the app password, every field and every error. All connectors share one page.

Connect it in three steps

  1. Turn on 2-Step Verification and create an app password at myaccount.google.com/apppasswords.

  2. Add a Gmail connector with your address and the app password. Test connector signs in and opens All Mail read-only.

  3. Pick a monitor kind or an example, adjust the search, and choose when it alerts.

Built for Gmail

  • Read only: emails stay unread, and nothing is moved, labelled or sent.
  • Gmail's own search syntax, as in Gmail's search box.
  • Images in an email stay blocked until you ask for them.
  • The app password stays in the macOS Keychain and goes only to imap.gmail.com.

Then hand it to an agent

A click on the alert opens the agent in a terminal under it, with the whole alert as its first message.

Gmail questions

Will CoIsland mark my Gmail emails as read?

No. It opens your mailbox read-only and reads headers and bodies with IMAP's BODY.PEEK, which leaves an email unread, whether it alerts about it or shows it on the alert page.

Why does CoIsland need an app password?

Gmail lets mail apps read over IMAP with an app password, which you create yourself once 2-Step Verification is on. It needs no Google sign-in screen and no app for Google or an admin to approve. Your Google password never goes into CoIsland.

Does it work with Google Workspace?

Yes, when your admin allows IMAP for any mail client and app passwords. If they are turned off, Test connector says so, with Gmail's own words.

Can I get alerts for Google Drive comments or calendar invitations?

Yes, through the emails Google sends about them. The Gmail search examples include Drive comments, calendar invitations and missed Chat messages.

How often does CoIsland check Gmail?

Every 2 minutes unless you choose otherwise, from every 30 seconds to every 30 days. Monitors on the same account take turns on one connection, so CoIsland never crowds out your other mail apps.

Other connectors

Put your work stack in the notch

Regular price: $59.99 Early bird price: $19.99 once, for 2 Macs. Native for Apple Silicon, macOS 14 and later.

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