How to Turn Twitter into a Gmail Notifier

If you are an avid Twitter user, being notified that you have a Gmail message through Twitter is helpful. It saves a lot of your time and you do not have to open a new tab just to type in the Gmail address again just to check if there’s an email message. Actually, this tutorial can be done in just 5 minutes of course depending on the speed of your computer and internet connection. No software or programming skills required. As long as you are literate, things will surely go flow smoothly.

Actually, this whole tutorial will just revolve around linking Twitter and Gmail through Google Docs. In case you do not know, Google Docs has the ability to monitor Gmail for a specific span of time. With this, you can use it to directly notify you on Twitter just by linking Twitter and Google Docs.

In doing these, there are several ways for you to succeed with it:

Twitter App for Gmail

1. You should first create a separate Twitter account for your Gmail inbox notifier. This is the account which will tell you if you have a new email message. twitter.com/signup
2. After creating the Twitter account, you will now go directly to the “Settings” page of the account. You should check the box beside “Protect My Tweets” and be sure to uncheck the box beside “Let others find me by my email address”. This is a protective measure to hinder other users from discovering this account. This account will only be used as Gmail notifier.
3. Now, you will proceed to https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new. Using your newly-created Twitter account, sign in on that URL. To create a new Twitter app, use the insert the following values:

[Name=Gmail; Description=Gmail Bot; Website=http://goo.gl/ldAXX; Callback URL=https://spreadsheets.google.com/macros]

4. Keep in mind that there will be no spaces between the letters or symbols included on that URL. If you failed to abide with this, you will repeatedly receive the error message of “Invalid URL Format”. Once done, just accept the terms and conditions provided, type in the required CAPTCHA code, and hit the “Submit” button.
5. Since you have created your Twitter application, go to the “Settings” tab. On the “Access”, make sure that it is the “Read and Write” mode.
6. After doing the above steps, you can now, save the changes and go to the tab of OAuth Tool. Take note of the Consumer Secret Key and Consumer Key.

Linking Google Docs and Twitter

1. Now, go to your account’s Google Docs and have a copy of this spreadsheet by clicking the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aofk8L6brI_edHdPRDlaOEtOaGl2SVF3YjdwMVpkLWc&newcopy=true.

2. Now, follow the series of clicks on buttons: “Tools”, “Script Editor”. From there, change the values with the exact information you have kept on the previous step. TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY and TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET
3. Proceed to “Resources” then go to “Current Script’s triggers”. From there, “sendTweet” should have an interval of 5 minutes.
4. Go to “Run” and then “sendTweet”. From there, there will be a new window showing “Authorization Required”. Just click “Authorize” and “Authorize App” so that Google Apps will be freely allowed to send tweet to your Twitter account.

Follow the Gmail Notifier Account on Twitter

1. Now, log in to your OWN Twitter account. From there, send a follower’s request to your Gmail notifier’s Twitter account.
2. Then, log in to the Gmail notifier’s Twitter account and accept the request.
3. After that, you can now view the tweets on your timeline which may tell you if you have new email messages.