All guides, by feature
Connect Gmail and Google Calendar
Connect them on the Connections tab of your profile. Mission Control then shows threads waiting on a reply and today’s calendar on your board.
Before you start
- Who can do this
- Anyone at your agency, for their own accounts
- You need
- A Google account with Gmail or Google Calendar.
- Availability
- If Mission Control is enabled for your agency
- Where in Orbit
- Your name, bottom of the sidebar
Steps
Tick a step’s number when it’s done. We’ll remember where you were.
Open the menu under your name, choose Profile and open the Connections tab.
On the Gmail row, press Connect. Orbit sends you to Google.
Sign in to Google and allow access. You come back to .
Do the same on the Google Calendar row.
Open a row to see its details. Sync now fetches new mail or events straight away.
When it worked
Each row shows your account or Connected, and the card reads 2 of 2 connected.
If something goes wrong
Orbit showsConnection did not complete (status: …).
Press Connect again and finish Google’s steps without going back.
Orbit showsCould not start the connection
Press Connect again in a moment.
Mail or events look out of date.
Open the row and press Sync now. If it says “Sync failed”, press Re-authorise and sign in to Google again.
You can’t see the Connections tab.
It shows only where Orbit has switched on Mission Control for your agency.
How it works
Explainer: Gmail and Google Calendar: what Orbit reads and keeps
Connecting your Gmail and Google Calendar lets Mission Control fill your board with threads waiting on a reply, drafts for your approval and today’s calendar. Orbit reads them as you, for your board only.
| Detail | Gmail | Google Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Used for | Threads waiting on a reply, and drafts held for your approval | Today on your Mission Control board |
| What Orbit keeps | Subject lines with email addresses removed, the sender’s name and company domain, Gmail’s preview, labels and times | Titles, times, locations and how many people are invited |
| Kept for | 14 days | 2 days |
| Never kept | Message bodies, and email addresses except the invite list of a meeting you ask Orbit to schedule | Attendee email addresses |
- Nobody else at your agency sees what comes back, not your Admin and not your Owner.
- What Orbit keeps is encrypted with a key unique to you.
- To draft a reply or spot a reschedule request, an agent reads a message body live, then discards it.
- For Calendar, attendee domains are checked against your clients, and only the match is kept.
- One Gmail and one Google Calendar per person.
- Disconnecting deletes what Orbit kept from that connection. Disconnect and delete cached data on Security also deletes your morning briefs and undecided meeting proposals. Your account, your artifacts and your decided approvals stay.
- Only for agencies with Mission Control. Without it, the Connections tab is hidden.
Explainer: The morning loop: when your brief runs
On weekday mornings, Orbit’s agents refresh what they can see, rank the three things that matter most and hold anything that needs your tap, ready on your Mission Control board. You choose whether it runs and at what hour.
- Orbit creates your schedule once you have a Mission Control seat and Gmail or Google Calendar connected. It starts on, at 07:00.
- It runs Monday to Friday. You can pick 05:00, 06:00, 07:00 or 08:00.
- The card shows when it runs next and when it last ran.
- If a scheduled run fails, Orbit tries it once more.
- Turning it off stops it until you turn it back on.
- It reads as you, and only for your own board.
- Your seat follows your Specialty Role in Team. An Agency Owner or Admin sets that.