Why I Ditched the Gmail App and Now Manage All My Emails in Discord
About
I used to be a Gmail power user.
Multiple labels, filters, shortcuts, search operators — the whole deal. I had the app on my home screen, notifications tuned just right, and I’d proudly tell people, “I live in my inbox.”
But over time, something shifted.
Gmail became another silo. Even with push notifications, I still had to open the app, scan the list, open individual emails, and switch contexts. For work stuff, I’d jump to Outlook. For side projects, another client. It added up to dozens of context switches every day.
Then I moved my entire email workflow to Discord — yes, the gaming-turned-productivity chat app — and I haven’t looked back.
Here’s how (and why) I now receive and manage all my emails inside Discord, thanks to Mailflow.
The Setup
- I created a dedicated @mailflow.cc mailbox for my main workflow.
- Forwarded my primary Gmail, Outlook, and a couple of custom domains to that address.
- Connected the mailbox to a private Discord server I already use every day (with channels like #inbox, #clients, #newsletters, #receipts).
- Set simple forwarding rules in Mailflow:
- Most emails → #inbox channel
- Client-related → #clients
- Newsletters & promotions → #newsletters (low-priority)
- Banking & receipts → #receipts
A Typical Day Now
- Wake up → open Discord (which I already use for team communication, communities, and bots).
- New emails appear instantly as clean messages from the Mailflow bot:
- From: client@company.com
- Subject: Feedback on the latest design mockups
- Preview: “Hey, loving the direction! A couple small tweaks on the hero section…”
- I read them right there in the channel.
- I react with emojis (✅ for “handled,” ❓ for “needs follow-up,” 🔥 for urgent).
- Team members see client emails the moment they arrive in shared channels — no more manual forwarding or “FYI” emails.
- When I need to reply, I just copy the key points and send a proper response from my regular email client (takes seconds since I’m already aware of the message).
- Important emails stay searchable forever in Discord’s history, right alongside our project discussions, files, and voice notes.
Why This Feels So Much Better
- One app to rule them all: I already live in Discord for work and communities. Adding incoming email means one less app to check.
- Context stays intact: Emails about a project land in the same channel as our discussions and files. No more digging through an inbox to find “that one email from last week.”
- Real-time team visibility: Everyone sees new client or support emails instantly. We can @mention, quote, or react without leaving Discord.
- Less noise, more control: I set notifications per channel — critical stuff pings me, newsletters stay silent until I check them.
I still have other @mailflow.cc mailboxes pushing personal emails to WhatsApp and alerts to Telegram, but Discord handles the bulk of my daily volume.
The free tier gives you one mailbox and 100 lifetime forwards — perfect for testing this setup. When I wanted separate workspaces for different clients and projects (up to 30 total), I grabbed the $99 lifetime deal. Or you can subscribe monthly for just $3.99.
If you already spend your day in Discord, Slack, Telegram, or WhatsApp… why keep incoming emails trapped in a separate app?
Bring them to where you already live and work.
Get started free at https://mailflow.cc — you can have your first @mailflow.cc mailbox forwarding to Discord in under 10 minutes.