Google Sync
Dex's updated integration with Google Calendar and Gmail gives you a more powerful way to stay on top of your relationships—faster syncs, smarter updates, and new workflows to save time.
By connecting your Google account, you can:
- Automatically update the last interaction based on emails and calendar events
- View relevant calendar events and email threads for each contact
- Search across multiple calendars and email subjects
- Add notes to calendar events with ease
- Start an email from a contact: open a Contact, click Actions › Send email, and Dex opens a new message in your computer's default mail app
- Enable auto-add: automatically add people you email or meet moving forward
💡 For existing users: this upgrade requires reconnecting your Google account in Dex.
What's New?
- Real-time sync: Emails and calendar events are reflected on Dex almost instantly
- Auto-add workflow: Automatically create Dex contacts for people you email or meet (forward-looking only)
- Send email from a contact: Open a contact → click Actions › Send email to hand the address to your default mail app
- Smarter contact linking: Dex matches contacts based on email address or calendar attendee name
Getting Started
Go to your Sync & Integrations page
From the home page, click the dropdown icon at the top-right corner and choose Sync & Integrations.
Connect your Google Account (Gmail + Calendar)
Find Gmail in the provider list and click Connect, then follow the Google login prompts. One Google connection covers both Gmail and Calendar.
What connecting Google brings in
Connecting a Google account does not copy your Google Contacts into Dex. The connection watches your mail and calendar from that point on, and reads back through your mail history to fill in past interactions. Your address book is a separate import.
- Your existing Google Contacts. Not included. Open the Dex mobile app and choose Google Contacts on the import screen to bring your address book in. The web app points you to the mobile app for this one rather than doing it itself.
- People you meet. Dex adds a contact for new calendar attendees on its own, from the moment you connect.
- People you email. Dex does not add contacts from email until you switch it on. Go to Settings → Sync & Integrations, find Add new contacts from under the Contacts group, and turn on Email. Leaving that off is the most common reason someone you have been emailing for weeks never turns up in Dex.
- Past email history. The first sync reads up to two years of mail, counting back from the day you connected the account. It stops early once it crosses three consecutive months with nothing in them, so a long gap in your mail ends the backfill there.
I can't connect my Google account
Work through these in order:
Leave every permission box ticked
Dex asks for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts in a single consent screen, and Google lets you grant them individually. Dex stores only what you actually granted, so unticking a box produces an account that looks connected while that part of the sync never runs.
Finish the connection in one sitting
Dex holds the handshake for one hour. If the Google tab sits open longer, the connection comes back with "Invalid or expired state. Please try logging in again." Go back to Sync & Integrations and start again.
Check it's a Gmail or Google Workspace account
Email sync works only with Gmail and Google Workspace accounts.
Reconnect if you're an existing user
The upgraded Google integration requires reconnecting your Google account once, even if it worked before.
If none of that helps, email us with the account you're connecting and the screen you're stuck on, and we'll look at it from our side.
Connected, but Gmail or Calendar still isn't syncing
On Sync & Integrations, each connected account has its own Email and Calendar switches.
- The Calendar switch is greyed out — that permission was never granted for this account. Reconnect it and leave every box ticked.
- Calendar shows a "Paused by Dex" badge — Dex paused calendar sync after a permissions error. Reconnect the account to resume it. If the badge returns immediately, email us instead of reconnecting again.
Email Sync Details
- Clicking on an email in Dex will open the full thread in Gmail
What Send email does
Actions › Send email on a contact hands the address to your computer's default mail app and opens a new message there. Dex does not send the message itself.
- If your computer has no default mail app set, clicking the button appears to do nothing. Set a default mail app in your operating system settings and it will work.
- You cannot pick which connected account the message comes from. It goes out from whatever account your mail app sends from, which may not be the account you connected to Dex. To choose a sending account inside Dex, use Mail Merge.
The button behaves the same whether your email sync has finished or not. A message that opens in the wrong app is not a sign that sync is still running.
Calendar Sync Details
- Dex shows relevant events where the contact's email is listed as an attendee, or where their name matches the calendar invite
- Dex syncs only the primary calendar for each connected Google account
Things to Know
- Initial sync may take a few hours; after that, changes sync within 2 minutes
- Works only with Gmail and G Suite accounts for email sync
- You can manage both Gmail and Calendar sync from the same Google account connection—no need to connect separately anymore
- Read-only. Dex asks Google for read-only access and never sends anything back, so contacts, edits, and notes you create in Dex do not reach Google Contacts, Gmail, or your calendar. To put your Dex contacts on a phone or a Mac, use Two-Way Contact Sync, which writes to the device's own address book rather than to Google