Sending emails through Gmail in Laravel

Sending emails through Gmail in Laravel is straightforward and requires a few setup steps to integrate Gmail’s SMTP server with your Laravel application.

1 Step 1: Create app password for Gmail:

• Logging into your Google account.
• Navigate to Security settings, then select 2-Step Verification.
• At the bottom of page, choose App passwords.
• Generate a new app password. This password will be used in your Laravel application’s configuration.
• Notice information from Google: App passwords help you sign into your Google Account on older apps and services that don’t support modern security standards. App passwords are less secure than using up-to-date apps and services that use modern security standards. Before you create an app password, you should check to see if your app needs this in order to sign in.

2 Step 2: Edit your .env file:

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MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD="YOUR-APP-PASSWORD"
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=your-email@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

Replace your-email@gmail.com with your Gmail address and YOUR-APP-PASSWORD with the app password you generated.

3 Step 3: Send a test email from Tinker:

• Open your terminal and run php artisan tinker.
• Use the following code to send a test email:

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use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::raw('Test email message from Laravel.', function ($message) {
    $message->to('recipient@gmail.com')->subject('Test email message from Laravel');
});

Replace 'recipient@gmail.com' with the right email address.