Anthropic is delivering connectors so users of Google productivity apps – Gmail, Calendar, and Drive – can use those apps seamlessly within their Claude AI conversations.
Google Workspace Connectors linking Claude to the three aforementioned apps are available for users of Claude and Claude Desktop.
Anthropic’s new connectors are another example – aligned with connectors from Microsoft, for example – of AI model providers making it easier to utilize productivity apps while continuing to work within the native AI experiences of those companies.
How Google Workspace Connectors Work
When a user asks Claude a question that requires access to Gmail, Calendar, or Drive, Claude automatically detects which tools it needs and uses them to respond. For Claude Team and Enterprise plans, an owner must enable connectors at the organization level before individual users can authenticate.
Claude’s response includes citations indicating which emails, calendar events, or documents were used as sources, with links to the original sources when available. A user can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into any source or response.
By default, each action Claude takes requires a user’s explicit approval. Owners decide whether members can allow certain actions to run without asking each time. Users can enable or disable specific connectors — from below the chat interface — by toggling individual connectors on or off from the “connectors” item in the chat interface.
What’s Now Possible
In Gmail, the new connectors let users search and read emails using natural language queries; they can also draft emails that include proper formatting and context. Users can also send, reply to, and forward emails. They can also manage emails with labels and threads. Claude can access email metadata including details on attachments but not attachment content.
Google Calendar users can take advantage of the new connectors to view events and calendars from within Claude; this includes shared calendars to which they have access. They can create, update, and delete events, while also finding mutual availability across event attendees. Users can set up recurring meetings and also manage attendee lists and respond to invitations.
For users of Google Drive, the workspace connectors enable them to search and retrieve Google Docs from their Drive from within Claude. They can share, move, and trash files in Drive. Users can now look up file metadata from within Claude and preview that metadata directly. Users can add Google Docs directly to chats and projects by pasting URLs or selecting from recent documents. Finally, Drive users can save Claude-generated files directly to their Drive – a feature that requires enabling code execution and file creation.
One qualifying note regarding Drive: Claude extracts text content only from Google Drive files. Images embedded in documents are not processed.
Privacy Considerations, Current Limitations
Users looking to take advantage of the new connectors must authenticate directly with their Google account before using them. Claude can only access the Gmail, Calendar, and Drive data for the Google account that has been connected.
Claude only accesses users’ data when they explicitly ask a question or request an action requiring this information, and retrieves the minimum information needed. Claude mirrors existing permissions — users can’t access information they don’t already have access to in Google Workspace.
Among current limitations of the connectors, attachment content is not directly accessible through Gmail. Some advanced Gmail filters may not be supported and complex queries may require multiple API calls.
With these new connectors, Anthropic continues an industry-wide push to more easily connect enterprise systems, including personal productivity apps, to their AI tools without requiring users to toggle between AI conversations and their enterprise or productivity apps. It also portends a future where the interface with which users interact with their data across systems and AI tools grows increasingly unified, placing the sharpest possible focus on the work and the output, rather than the systems making that work possible.
For more information on the connectors, check out Anthropic FAQs.
More Anthropic and Connector Insights:
Community Summit North America is the largest independent innovation, education, and training event for Microsoft business applications delivered by Expert Users, Microsoft Leaders, MVPs, and Partners. Register now to attend Community Summit in Nashville, TN from October 11-15.
