How Distro sends email

Distro sends every cold email through your own Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace), using Google's official Gmail API. There is no shared Distro sending pool and no Distro mail server: each email leaves from your Google account, appears in your Gmail Sent folder, and replies come back to your inbox like any other email.

The short version

1. Your Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace)
2. Connected in Outreach → Sending accounts with Google sign-in
3. Sender: your address or a verified "Send mail as" alias
4. Distro campaign: schedule, daily limit, follow-ups
5. Gmail API sends from your mailbox (copy in your Sent folder)
6. Replies land in your mailbox and show up in the Distro Inbox

1. You connect a Google account in Outreach → Sending accounts. Google asks you to approve two Gmail permissions. You never type your Google password into Distro.
2. Distro reads the addresses that account is allowed to send from: the account's own address plus any verified Send mail as aliases. Each address you add as a sender can be picked in a campaign.
3. When a campaign is running, Distro prepares each email, checks it is still allowed to go out, and hands it to Gmail through the Gmail API, from the sender you chose.
4. Gmail sends it from your mailbox. Distro then watches for replies to the emails it sent, so follow-ups stop when someone answers.

Your mailbox, not a shared pool

Some cold email tools send through their own servers, where many customers share the same sending infrastructure. Distro does not. Your emails go out through the Google account you connected, so:

• Recipients see your real address (or your verified alias), not a relay address.
• Your sending reputation is your own. Another customer's behaviour does not affect your mail, and yours does not affect theirs.
• A copy of every email sits in your Gmail Sent folder, so your mailbox stays the record of what you sent.
• Google's own rules and daily sending limits for your account still apply. Distro's daily limits sit on top of them. See Gmail sending limits explained.

Why there is no SMTP or IMAP setup

Distro connects through Google's own integration (Google sign-in plus the Gmail API). That means:

• You are not asked for an SMTP server, port or app password to send.
• You are not asked for IMAP credentials to read replies. Reply detection uses the same Google connection.
• You can remove Distro's access at any time, from Distro or from your Google Account.

If you have seen tools ask for SMTP or IMAP settings, SMTP vs IMAP: what Distro users need to know explains the difference. If Gmail itself asks you for SMTP settings while you add an address under Send mail as, see Gmail is asking for SMTP settings.

Which addresses can send

A campaign can only send from an address Google has confirmed belongs to the connected account:

• The Google account's own address is always allowed.
• A Send mail as alias is allowed only once Gmail reports it as verified. Until then it shows as Waiting for Google on the Sending accounts page and can't be chosen.

Distro checks this again right before each email goes out. If the alias was removed from Gmail, or the account was disconnected, that email is not sent. Read more in What is a sending identity?.

What Distro adds to each email

When Distro hands an email to Gmail, it sets:

• From: the sender's address and the From name you set on the Sending accounts page (or the name from Gmail if you didn't set one). See Change your From name and Reply-To address.
• Reply-To: only if you added one to the campaign.
• Signature: only the Distro signature you picked in the campaign's Signature setting. Your Gmail signature is not added automatically.
• Unsubscribe: an unsubscribe line and a one-click unsubscribe header, only if you turned on Unsubscribe link for the campaign. It is off by default.
• Threading: follow-ups that continue the same thread are sent as replies in that Gmail thread.

Pacing and limits

Distro does not send a campaign all at once. It sends during the days and hours you set, spaces emails out, and respects the campaign's daily limit. During the free trial, each campaign is also capped at 50 emails a day. Learn more in Schedule a campaign and Choose your daily sending volume.

Which email providers work

Today Distro sends through Google accounts (personal Gmail and Google Workspace) only. In the sender panel on the Sending accounts page, Outlook (Microsoft 365 and Outlook.com) is listed as coming soon and can't be enabled yet. Distro does not currently send through other providers or through a custom SMTP server.

If your business email is hosted somewhere else, you can still send from that address if you add it to your Google account under Gmail's Send mail as setting and Gmail verifies it. See Send cold email from your custom-domain email.

What happens if the connection breaks

If Google signs Distro out (for example you changed your password or removed Distro's access in your Google Account), the account shows Reconnect on the Sending accounts page and its senders show Reconnect Google account. Distro stops sending from it until you reconnect. See Disconnect or reconnect your Google account.