Gmail Is Disabling Less Secure Apps

Gmail is disabling the Less Secure Apps feature on some Google Gmail accounts starting from May 30th, 2022.

What Is Less Secure Apps in Gmail?

Gmail is disabling the Less Secure Apps feature in the free Google Gmail, that allows software and devices to sign in to your Gmail account with your main Google username and password. 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, so prepare now.

If you’re using WordPress apps like the very popular WP Mail SMTP plugin, and you are using the Gmail SMTP details with their “Other SMTP mailer” option, you may have difficulty sending emails when the “Less Secure Apps” feature is disabled. Up until now, it was possible to send emails through Gmail SMTP with this setting turned on.

Many WordPress users rely on Gmail to send emails from their WordPress contact forms and to avoid deliverability problems you will need to make some changes. If you go to this link on how to update your WP Mail SMTP settings, you will be able to continue using your Gmail account.

WP Mail SMTP has recommended app passwords for some time, but if you use Less Secure Apps since it’s a little more straightforward, all users will need to switch to app passwords or use a different mailer such as Microsoft 365 from Eurio-Pacific Web Services.

If you are using the “Allow Less Secure Apps” setting in Google account on other programs such as Quickbooks desktop, many appointment/booking programs, these will all need updating. Euro-Pacific can help you with these issues.