Set up Monitor alerts with Gmail & Google Workspace
PlayoutONE's Monitor application can notify you of important events via email alerts.
Google's email products - personal Gmail accounts or Google Workspace - require an 'app-specific password' to be generated, a single-purpose password that will allow access to send emails from your account without requiring the usual two-factor authentication security measures.
App-specific passwords are less secure than your regular Google account password so should only be used for their original purpose.
You can generate multiple app-specific passwords for different applications if needed, which can be easily removed if the security of the account is ever compromised.
To set up Monitor email alerts using a Gmail account, you can create an app-specific password for PlayoutONE.
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🔑 Enabling app-specific passwords
Firstly, you will need to enable 'less secure app access' in your Google Account settings:
If you wish to use a business Gmail account created through Google Workspace (previously Google Apps or G Suite) using your corporate domain, an administrator with access to manage your Google Workspace account will first need to allow app-specific passwords to be generated.
They can log in to their Google Admin dashboard and permit users to enable app-specific passwords by checking the box which says "Allow users to manage their access to less secure apps":
⌨️ Creating an app-specific password for PlayoutONE
Once enabled, you can then generate a password which will only be used by Monitor.
While logged in as the account you wish to send email alerts from, go to its Google Account settings page and create an app password.
When asked to choose an app, select "Other" then enter the name "PlayoutONE" and enter any required device details.
Once the password for PlayoutONE has been generated, copy it somewhere to be entered into Monitor settings.
The password is broken up with spaces every four characters to make it easy to enter manually, but they are not required as part of the password. In the example above, you would enter the password unbroken as a 16-character string like "yrbnrewyffesltfo".
Once you have finished configuring Monitor, make sure not to keep any notes of the PlayoutONE-specific password.
This password could be used to log in to the Google account for other purposes without Google's normal security measures, so it is important to keep it secure.
✉️ Configuring Monitor alerts
Once PlayoutONE has an app-specific password to use, you can configure Monitor's settings using Gmail's SMTP server details:
| Server | smtp.gmail.com |
| SMTP Port | 587 |
| Use SSL? | Yes |
| Username | [your chosen Gmail address] |
| Password | [your 16-character PlayoutONE app password] |
| From Email | [your chosen Gmail address] |
If you press the "Send Test Email" button, you can check to make sure you have received a successful email:
That's it! Monitor will now be able to send you alerts using your chosen Gmail or Google Workspace account.
If you have not received a test email, try checking the email settings in Monitor to ensure the server details, username and password are correct.
The address entered in the 'From Email' field must match the username entered, or be configured as a secondary address or alias which the account you are logging in as has permission to send messages from.