Google Support & Guidance

Google Mail

Google Mail and the Google Mail App, freely available on both iOS and Android, are the two official Google email clients, however, after initially signing into your account using the official Google Mail client, you can use any other third party email client.

Accessing Google Mail

The following sub-chapters provide information and guidance regarding how to access your emails and Google Mail using a Web Browser, the official Google Mail App or a Third Party Email Client.

Web Browser

Users signed into multiple Google accounts and not using separate Google Chrome Profiles, may need to switch accounts before continuing.

Having accessed your OCA email account, you can access your emails via Google Mail or the ‘Gmail’ option, the latter is available in the upper right corner of the Google homepage, and as demonstrated in the Google Homepage Interface chapter.

Google Mail App

For mobile and/or tablet users, the TEL Team would recommend downloading the official Google Mail App, available for free on both iOS and Android, where once downloaded, you’ll be prompted to login using your OCA email address and password.

In the instance you haven’t previously signed into your OCA email account, you may first need to sign in using a web browser, whereby you'll be prompted to complete the mandatory password change. Only after having changed your password can you continue to login using the Google Mail app or a third party email client.

For more information regarding signing into your Google account using an official Google client, please visit the following Google Support page.

Third Party Email Client

Students signing into their OCA email account using a third party email client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, will first need to sign into their account using a web browser. Thereafter, the following Google Support page provides information and guidance on how to sign into your OCA email account using a third party email client.

Hyperlinked email addresses and preventing the use of third party email clients

The following guidance is only applicable to those using Google Chrome, and would like to prevent third party email clients from opening upon selecting a hyperlinked email address. For example and in the instance you’d like to prevent the following techsupport@oca.ac.uk email address from opening using the default Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook application, and instead open within the Google Mail interface.

The following process only prevents the use of third party email clients, instead using Google Mail. Additionally, it is not possible to force Google Chrome into using a specific email account upon selecting a hyperlinked email address, and the following process therefore doesn’t guarantee the use of your OCA email account, and may instead default to a personal Google account based on the following factors;

Tree diagram explaining the process in which Google accounts will be determined when selecting a hyperlinked email address.

To begin and within the Google Chrome interface, begin by selecting the kebab menu (three dots) - located in the upper right corner - followed by ‘Settings’. On the following page, next select ‘Privacy & Security’ - located in the left hand menu - followed by ‘Site Settings’, ‘Additional Permissions’ and ‘Protocol Handlers’. Again on the subsequent page, next enable the ‘Sites can ask to handle protocols’ option.

Alternatively and to quickly navigate to the appropriate setting, you can also copy and paste the following string of italic text into the address bar within Google Chrome; chrome://settings/handlers

Next conclude by navigating to Google Mail and selecting the ‘Service Handlers’ (two overlapping diamonds) icon - located in the far right of the address bar - and select ‘Allow’.

Having followed this process correctly, any hyperlinked email addresses, such as techsupport@oca.ac.uk, will now open using the Google Mail interface.

Additional tips for using Google Mail are available via the following Google Support page; additional guidance on this particular process is also available via the aforementioned Google Support page and located beneath the “Open Chrome email link in Gmail” heading.