Use your own Google app
Connect Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive through a Google app you create yourself, and decide exactly what Haruno may do with them.
What this is
When you connect Gmail, Google Calendar, or Google Drive, Haruno asks Google for your permission first. Normally it asks through Haruno's own Google app, which requests a deliberately small set of permissions.
Instead, you can register your own Google app — it is free, and you do it once on Google's own website. Haruno then connects through your app, so the permission screen belongs to you. You can grant more if you want to: reading your mail, and access to your whole Google Drive rather than a single Haruno folder.
What you'll need
- A Google account. An ordinary Gmail address is enough — you do not need Google Workspace.
- About 15 to 30 minutes, once.
- No payment. Creating your own Google app is free.
- Haruno installed on your Mac or PC, and the file Google gives you at the end.
You only do this once. After that, connecting Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive works exactly as it did before.
Before you start: what to expect
Two things are worth knowing before you spend the time, because both follow from one choice you make in step 3.
On that warning screen, choose Advanced and then Continue. The app Google is warning you about is your own.
You can ask Google to review and publish your app to remove the weekly sign-in. Review takes time, and an app that asks to read mail also has to pass a security assessment that you would arrange and pay for yourself. For one person's own app, staying in testing and signing in weekly is usually the simpler choice.
Create your Google app
- Open the Google Cloud console and sign in with the Google account you want to use. Create a new project and give it any name you like — “Haruno” works.
- In your new project, open APIs and services and switch on three of them: the Gmail API, the Google Calendar API, and the Google Drive API. Switch on all three even if you only plan to connect one, so you do not have to come back later.
- Open the consent screen settings and fill in an app name and your email address. For the audience, choose External if you are using an ordinary Gmail account, or Internal if you have Google Workspace and want to skip the weekly sign-in.
- If you chose External, find the test users list and add every Google account you intend to connect to Haruno, including your own. This is the step people miss. An account that is not on this list cannot sign in, however correct everything else is — and each new account you want to connect needs its own entry here.
- Open Credentials, choose to create credentials, pick OAuth client ID, and choose Desktop app as the application type. A Web application client will not work with Haruno.
- Download the JSON file straight away, using the download button Google offers the moment the client is created. Google shows the secret only once.
- In Haruno, open Settings, then Connectors, and choose to use your own Google app. Upload the file you just downloaded, or copy the client ID and client secret out of it. Then connect Gmail, Google Calendar, or Google Drive as usual — the permission screen you see is now your own app's.
Google renames these screens from time to time. If a screen is worded slightly differently from the steps above, look for the same idea rather than the exact words.
What each permission unlocks
When you connect, Google shows you a list of permissions with tick boxes. You choose them one by one. Unticking one simply means Haruno cannot do the things on that row.
| Permission on Google's screen | What Haruno can do with it |
|---|---|
| Send email on your behalf | Write and send mail, and send replies you have approved. |
| Read, compose, and delete your email | Search and read your mail, open attachments, reply in a conversation, sort messages with labels, and move messages to Trash. |
| Manage your email labels | Create, rename, and apply labels. Already included if you granted the row above. |
| See and edit events on all your calendars | Read your schedule and create, change, or cancel events. |
| See, edit, create, and delete only the Google Drive files you use with this app | Work inside a single Haruno folder in your Drive, plus any file you pick yourself. |
| See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files | Work with your whole Google Drive and keep the folders you choose in sync. |
Switching back or removing your app
You can change your mind at any time. Remove your Google app in Haruno's settings and new connections use Haruno's built-in app again.
Connections you already made keep working with the app that created them, so nothing breaks the moment you switch. When a connection does need to move across, Haruno says so on that connector and tells you why, and signing in again takes a few seconds.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means, and what to do |
|---|---|
| Error 403: access_denied | The account you are signing in with is not on your app's test users list. Add it in the Google Cloud console — every account you connect needs its own entry — then try again. |
| The browser shows an error page instead of Google's sign-in | The client you created is a Web application client. Create a new one and choose Desktop app as the application type. |
| Haruno asks you to sign in to Google again about once a week | Your app is still in testing. That is Google's rule, not a fault. Signing in again takes seconds; a Google Workspace Internal app removes the limit altogether. |
| A message mentioning accessNotConfigured | One of the three services is not switched on in your project. Go back to APIs and services and switch on the Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive APIs. |
| “Google hasn't verified this app” | Expected, and safe here: it is your app, and Google has not reviewed it. Choose Advanced, then Continue. |
| Haruno asks you to sign in again to switch | That connection was made with a different app — Haruno's built-in one, or an earlier version of yours. Sign in again on that connector to move it across. |