Can I use Gmail or Microsoft 365 with Contact?
Yes. Contact by Zaweba connects to Gmail and Microsoft 365 over IMAP and SMTP using an app password, since OAuth2 sign-in is not built in.
Yes, you can. Contact by Zaweba works with Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online through IMAP for reading mail and SMTP for sending it. Those services normally need an app password rather than your usual sign-in password, because Contact does not have OAuth2, the sign-in-through-a-browser method, built in. Once the app password is in place, Contact collects and sends mail just as it does with any other provider.
Why an app password is needed
Big providers prefer programs to sign in through a browser window with OAuth2. Contact connects the traditional way, with a user name and password over IMAP and SMTP. For accounts with that kind of security in place, the provider expects a separate password generated for one program, an app password, instead of your main one.
That arrangement has an upside. The app password is for Contact alone. Your main password never goes into it, and you can withdraw the app password in your account settings at any time without affecting anything else.
What to gather before you start
You need the provider's IMAP server, port and security setting, its SMTP server, your email address as the user name, and the app password. Your provider's help pages list the server details, usually under setting up mail in another program. You'll also want to know which of your addresses you send from, since Contact asks for your own addresses.
For a business account on Microsoft 365, an administrator may have switched IMAP or app passwords off. If so, ask them to switch it on for your mailbox.
Adding the account in Contact
Open Settings > Mailboxes. Enter the IMAP server, port and security, your user name and the app password. Enter the SMTP server for sending, your own addresses and your Sent folder.
Then press Test IMAP. It reports how many messages the first check will fetch, which Sent folder will be used and which Junk folder will be used. If the test fails with a sign-in error and you are sure the details are right, the app password is the first thing to check: make sure it was copied without spaces and that it was made for the account you are setting up.
Your password is stored encrypted with Windows for this PC and user, and nothing is sent to a Zaweba server.
What happens to your Gmail or Microsoft 365 mailbox
Contact reads mail without marking it read, deleting it or moving it. Gmail in the browser, Outlook or whichever program you already use carries on exactly as before. The one change Contact makes is with spam: if you file a sender as Spam in Contact, its mail in the server Inbox is moved to that mailbox's Junk folder, now and as more arrives.
Deleting in Contact only removes mail from Contact. The server is never touched.
Calendars and contacts on these services
IMAP and SMTP carry mail only, so Contact doesn't sync with a Gmail or Outlook calendar. Contact has its own calendar, which can export as .ics, and invitations that arrive from Outlook or Google can be added to it automatically by a setting. Contacts likewise live in Contact's own Address Book, which imports and exports CSV and vCard.
Several accounts together
If you run more than one business, you can add a Gmail account, a Microsoft 365 account and others side by side, each with its own name, colour, signature and folders. A switcher shows all mailboxes together or one at a time, and replies go out from the mailbox the email was sent to, so customers of each business hear from the right address.
