How you can automate your emails with Python in the latest 2022 updates...
Bharath K
September 6, 2022
7
min read
Since the establishment of the internet, emails have always been one of the more popular ways of communication. While other physical means of communicating with each other seem to be fading in the modern world, the prominence of emails for numerous tasks is still applicable.
Electronic mail (Email) have a wide array of applications. We make use of emails for communicating with various types of people or companies. Whether you want to message an employer, an employee, or a staff member, submit your resume, ask for clarifications, or perform a variety of other similar tasks, emails are the most straightforward and preferred means of communication.
In this article, we will look at the latest security updates to Google. We will then explore the most effective method to get a secure app password by following some additional security steps. Finally, we will utilize Python to construct our email automation through which we can send mails to one or more email addresses with ease.
Before diving into this project, it is a good idea to improve your fundamentals of Python. I recommend checking my article on the seven best Python programming practices to improve your productivity from the link provided below. A few of these tips are applicable even for this article!
Before we start with our project of automating emails, we will require some additional permissions that must be granted by the email web services. We will look at how to access your Gmail and Google accounts in this article. Once we complete the steps in this section, we can proceed to code the Python file to access the account with the generated password.
Previously, we could turn on the access to less secure sign-ins. Doing the following step would allow us direct access to our accounts through Python. (link). However, this step is now replaced as Google updated its security measures. Hence, it does not allow this method anymore. Below are the details for interested users.
Some apps and devices use less secure sign-in technology, which makes your account vulnerable. You can turn off access for these apps, which we recommend, or turn it on if you want to use them despite the risks. Google will automatically turn this setting OFF if it’s not being used.
To help keep your account secure, from May 30, 2022, Google no longer supports the use of third-party apps or devices which ask you to sign in to your Google Account using only your username and password.
The previously mentioned method no longer works with the new security updates by Google, as highlighted by the above screenshot. Hence, we will make use of a more secure app-generated password, which is automatically provided once the following steps mentioned below are completed. Let us analyze how to obtain the app password for automating your emails with Python.
Disclaimer: The steps described in this section provide extra security and are mostly safe to perform, to my knowledge. Please verify the steps and proceed with caution. For further information, I suggest the viewers visit the official site for following along with the steps from this link.
