How to Send an Email on Behalf of Someone Else (Gmail, Done Right)

Every virtual assistant and executive assistant runs into this question early. Your client or executive wants you to reply to emails from their inbox, but they don't want to hand over their password. Gmail actually supports three different approaches, and choosing the wrong one can create real problems (compromised accounts, missed emails, or replies that look impersonal enough that recipients get suspicious).

The three options are: sharing a password (bad idea), setting up an alias in the account owner's Gmail (limited), or using Gmail's built-in delegate access feature (correct answer for almost every case). Below is what each one does, when it makes sense, and how to set up the one you should probably use.

The tempting shortcut. Your client sends you their Gmail password, you log in as them, you reply. Everything works until something goes wrong: two-factor authentication kicks you out at a critical moment, Google flags the login as suspicious and locks the account, or your client changes the password and forgets to tell you. Then there's the trust question, which matters even more if you support multiple clients. Password sharing exposes the entire account to whoever has the login, including access to Google Drive, Photos, Calendar, and anything else tied to that Google account.

Never use password sharing to reply on someone's behalf. If your client suggests it because they don't know about delegate access, use that as a chance to explain the better option below.

Gmail lets you add another email address as a “Send mail as” alias inside your own Gmail account. Compose a new email, click the from dropdown, pick your client's address. The recipient sees your client's address in the from line, and replies go to your client's inbox (or yours, depending on setup).

Two limits make this the wrong choice for VA work: first, you don't get access to your client's inbox, so you can't reply to threads they received. Second, you have to verify the alias with a confirmation code your client has to give you, which means they're still involved in the process. It works fine for occasional outbound email as a manager, but it's not a real VA workflow.

Gmail's delegate feature is what Google built specifically for this exact use case. Your client grants you access to their inbox from their own Gmail settings. You log in with your own Google account and see their inbox alongside yours. You can read every thread, send replies, and manage labels, all from your own login. Their password stays with them.

Emails you send are marked to the recipient as “sent by your name on behalf of your client”, which is more transparent for the recipient (and better for compliance if the industry cares about that). Google Workspace admins can turn off that sender-masking, so on Workspace accounts you can send email that appears entirely from your client without the “sent by” note.

Full step-by-step setup instructions are in our Gmail delegate access guide for VAs, including the identity verification step, the 1-week invitation window, and Workspace-vs-personal Gmail limits.

Delegate access solves the technical problem of sending email on someone else's behalf. It doesn't solve the tone problem. If you type replies in your own voice from your client's inbox, recipients will notice the difference within a few emails. Contacts who have been talking to your client for months know exactly how they write, and a slightly wrong tone reads as an assistant covering for them, not as your client themselves.

This is where a tone-matching tool built for VAs and EAs helps. Paste 3-5 real sent emails from your client's Gmail once, and every reply you draft after that is written in that specific voice. Combined with delegate access, you get the complete workflow: their inbox, their tone, your login.

The visible difference to whoever receives your reply varies by option. This matters for both trust and legal transparency:

Sending email on behalf of someone else is normal business practice, but a few situations require extra care:

A surprising number of VAs get told by their client “set up send-as so you can send from my address” and follow instructions, only to discover it's the wrong tool. Send As is meant for the account owner to have multiple aliases (e.g., a founder with both @company.com and @founderpersonal.com). It's not the right feature for one person sending on another's behalf.

If your client suggests Send As, gently redirect: “Send As would work only for outbound emails from a specific address. For handling their inbox and replying to threads, delegate access is what Google built for this. It also keeps their password with them, which is safer.”

Then walk them through the delegate setup using our Gmail delegate access guide. Ten minutes of setup saves months of workflow friction.