Google Workspace : Bulk update email aliases to user accounts

Many organisations have a need to assign email aliases to their Google Workspace users, whether it’s to serve multiple roles or functions within a business, or you’re in a separate business or brand from the parent organisations. They are even used by some to add the email account of a former employee, maybe to the manager, so the new emails are not lost or reassigned to a new employee so they don’t need to manage multiple accounts separately. Email aliases can be very useful.

What is a Google Workspace email alias?

Simply put, an email alias is an alternate email address. This address is added to the primary Google Workspace address, typically performed by the Google Administrator manually. When an email is sent to an alias address it is routed to the primary email address within Google Workspace. The owner of the primary email address can read the message without having to have multiple accounts.

You can only add a maximum of 30 email aliases to a Google Workspace account, but the great thing, however, is that they are free.

Add an email alias for a Google Workspace user

1. In your Google Admin console (at admin.google.com)…
2. Go to Menu  Directory > Users.
3. To open the user settings page, click a user’s name.If you need help with finding the user in the list, go to Find a user account.
4. On the left, under the user’s name, click Add Alternate Emails.
5. Click Alternate email and enter a name for the alias (the part of the address before the @ sign).
6. (Optional) If needed, select a secondary domain.
   Note: User alias domains don’t show in the Domain menu. Learn more about user alias domains and secondary domains.
7. (Optional) If you want to add more email aliases, repeat steps 5 and 6.
8. Save.

Add or remove group email aliases

You can add up to 30 email aliases for each group.

1. In your Google Admin console (at admin.google.com)…
2. Go to Menu Directory > Groups.
3. Click the name of a group.
4. In the Group information section, click Aliases. 
5. Point to the Aliases section and click Edit .
6. To add an alias:
   1. In the Group Alias Email field, enter a new address. If your organization has more than one domain, select a domain from the list.See below for reserved words you can’t use as an email alias address.
   2. Click Add Alias.
7. To remove an alias, point to an alias and click Remove .

Changes to the email alias can take up to 24 hours but typically happen more quickly. 

Reserved words

The following words can’t be as email alias addresses for groups that you create as described above:

• abuse
• admin
• administrator
• hostmaster
• majordomo
• postmaster
• root
• ssl-admin
• webmaster

SendAs Addresses and Email Aliases

Just because you have an email alias doesn’t automatically mean that you can also send from that email address, it just means that you’re able to receive emails to that specific email address. If you want to send emails out as that email alias you need to configure a SendAs address for that account. Unfortunately, this is a task that has to be performed as the Google Workspace account, it not possible via the Google Admin Console.

Send emails from a different address or alias

Step 1: Add an address you own

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. In the top right, click Settings   See all settings.
3. Click the Accounts and import or Accounts tab.
4. In the “Send mail as” section, click Add another email address.
5. Enter your name and the address you want to send from.
6. Click Next Step  Send verification.
7. For school or work accounts, enter the SMTP server (for example, smtp.gmail.com or smtp.yourschool.edu) and the username and password on that account.
8. Click Add Account.

Step 2: Confirm the address

1. Sign in to the account you added.
2. Open the confirmation message you got from Gmail.
3. Click the link.

Step 3: Change the “From” address

1. In the message, click the “From” line.
   (If you don’t see this, click the space next to the recipient’s email.)
2. Select the address to send from.

Automatically add email aliases and send as addresses to Google Workspace accounts with Patronum.

If all of the above