Gmail Is Disabling Less Secure Apps: What To Do Next

Google has announced that it’s disabling the Less Secure Apps feature on some Google accounts from May 30th, 2022.

If you’re using Gmail SMTP details with our Other SMTP mailer, you may have difficulty sending emails when this feature is disabled.

We know that many of our customers rely on Gmail to send emails from WordPress and we wanted to provide some information so that you can avoid deliverability problems.

What Is Less Secure Apps in Gmail?

Less Secure Apps is a feature in Gmail that allows software and devices to sign in to your Gmail account with your main Google username and password.

Up until now, it was possible to send emails through Gmail SMTP with this setting turned on.

Now, Google has decided to begin phasing out Less Secure Apps from May 30th, 2022. Google Workspace and Google Cloud Identity users won’t be affected right away, but support for Less Secure Apps will still be phased out for those users at a later date.

We’ve recommended app passwords for some time, but some customers have chosen to use Less Secure Apps since it’s a little more straightforward. Now that the feature is being retired, all users will need to switch to app passwords or use a different mailer.

How to Switch From Less Secure Apps

If you’re using WP Mail SMTP, here are the options available.

Option : Use an App Password

If you’d like to continue using the Other SMTP mailer in WP Mail SMTP, you can set up an app password in your Google account.

An app password works like an alternate password for your account. It can only be used by the applications you share it with, so it’s more secure than sharing your primary password.

If you’d like to use an app password, you’ll need to turn on two factor authentication for your Google account first. After that, you can create an app specific password for WP Mail SMTP in the security settings for your Google account.

To do so, select Other (Custom name) as the app on the App passwords screen.