Use ActorDo with any email provider (IMAP/POP)

If you don’t use Gmail or Outlook email service, there is still a way to use it with ActorDo.

Here are the steps on how to first connect those to a FREE Gmail account and afterwards use that with ActorAI Assistant.

Prerequisites:

• free gmail account. Create one here if you don’t have https://gmail.com
• your existing email provider: alex@actor.do (as example)

1. Prepare Your Other Email Account

• Make sure your email provider supports IMAP (recommended) or POP3.
• Log in to your other provider’s webmail or settings panel.
• Enable IMAP or POP access (some providers require turning it on manually, e.g., Yahoo, Outlook, custom cPanel accounts).
• Note down the following details:
  • Incoming mail server (IMAP/POP) address, port, SSL/TLS requirement.
  • Outgoing mail server (SMTP) address, port, SSL/TLS requirement.
  • Your username (usually full email address) and password.

2. Add Your Other Email to Gmail (for sending emails)

1. Open Gmail on desktop and login with the existing gmail account you have.
2. Go to ⚙ Settings → See all settings.
3. Open the Accounts and Import tab.
4. In the section “Send mail as”, click Add another email address.
5. Enter:
   • Your name (how you want it to appear).
   • Your email address from the other provider.
6. Choose “Treat as an alias” (if you want replies to come to Gmail).
7. Enter the SMTP server settings you noted earlier.
   • Server: e.g., smtp.yourprovider.com
   • Port: usually 465 (SSL) or 587 (TLS)
   • Username: your full email address
   • Password: your provider password (or app password if required)
8. Gmail will send a verification email to your other account. Confirm it to complete setup.

3. Add Your Other Email to Gmail (for receiving emails)

Option A – via POP3 (fetch emails into Gmail):

1. Still in Accounts and Import, find “Check mail from other accounts”.
2. Click Add a mail account.
3. Enter your other email address.
4. Select Import emails using POP3.
5. Enter:
   • POP server (e.g., pop.yourprovider.com)
   • Port (usually 995 with SSL)
   • Username (full email address)
   • Password
   • Leave a copy on the server (optional, check if you want emails to remain in the original inbox)
   • Always use a secure connection (SSL)
   • Label incoming messages (to identify which account they came from)
6. Gmail will begin fetching emails from your provider into your inbox.

Option B – via provider’s IMAP forwarding (if supported):

• Some providers allow forwarding all mail to Gmail (instead of POP fetch).
• Configure auto-forwarding from your provider’s webmail settings to your Gmail address.
• (This avoids fetch delays, since POP3 checks periodically, not instantly).

4. Test the Setup

• Try sending an email from Gmail and choose your other address in the From dropdown.
• Send a test email to your other address and confirm it appears in Gmail.
• Verify replies go to the correct inbox.

5. Connect to ActorDo

• Give Actor permission to access your Gmail (read, label, and manage mail).
• Go to actor.do/web.
• Sign in with your Gmail account (the one where you just connected your provider).

6. How things work

• Your other email provider → sends mail into Gmail via POP3.
• Gmail inbox → now contains both your Gmail and your provider’s messages.
• Actor → reads your Gmail inbox just like it would normally.
• Actor can:
  • Categorize emails (Needs Action, To Respond, Finance, etc.)
  • Summarize or draft replies
  • Remind you about follow-ups
  • Process them exactly the same way it does with a normal Gmail account.

👉 You only need to maintain the POP3 connection once. After that, Gmail + Actor handle everything automatically.

7. Disadvantages

• Email processing is slower. Gmail reads emails from time to time and after that ActorDO reads emails from Gmail
• Slight different context because past emails are unavailable. If you start this service now, features related to past emails, that don’t exist in Gmail, won’t work.

Note: this method of working is not fully tested, but we’d love to make it work if needed.