How to Send and Receive Faxes from Gmail

Sending and receiving faxes may seem like a thing of the past. But in some industries, faxes play a huge role in streamlining communication, and must be sent, received, and often signed and returned during the normal course of a business day.

If you don’t have a fax machine, you actually don’t need one. With an online fax service like eFax, you can send and receive faxes from your computer—even from your email account.

Sending and Receiving Faxes from Gmail

To start faxing from your Gmail account, follow the steps below:

1. Set Up Your Online Fax Account

The first step to sending and receiving faxes via Gmail is to set up your online fax account. This is a simple process that hardly takes any time at all.

• Navigate to eFax.com to set up your account using your email address

• Click on the “Sign Up” button on the upper right-hand side of the page

2. Receive Your FREE eFax Number

The next step is to choose your eFax number—it’s free with an eFax subscription. You can search by area code, state or region—or even use an existing number to send and receive faxes if that works better for you.

Once done, enter your account information, including your name, email address and a password you will use to access your account. You also need to set up your billing information.

Once you’ve completed this step, you’ll receive an email. Verify your email, and you are ready to start faxing.

3. Fax from any Gmail Account

With eFax, you can fax from any Gmail account. That means any account you are logged in to in your Gmail dashboard will enable you to send a fax using your eFax account and number.

Since the number is attached to your eFax account and not a specific Gmail address, you can send and receive faxes in any of them that you choose. This enables you to personalize each fax and how you send and receive in specific accounts.

4. To Send a fax from Gmail:

Click on the “Compose” button, like you normally would when creating a new email

5. Enter the recipient’s details:

Type in the recipient’s fax number, making sure to add @efaxsend.com. For example: [email protected]

6. Add fax documents as email attachments:

Attach the document you want to fax by clicking on the Paperclip icon to select a file from your computer or external storage device, or tap the Drive icon if you want to attach documents from Google Drive

7. Create a cover page:

To create a cover page for your fax, type a message in the email’s body. You may also use a cover page template provided by eFax.

8. Send your fax:

Click on the “Send” button to send your fax.

Other Capabilities eFax Provides

Aside from sending and receiving electronic faxes through Gmail, eFax allows you to:

1. Schedule Your Fax

Want to send a fax later? You don’t have to wait until that time to log in and send your fax. You can schedule your fax for when you want it to go out based on the time zone of the recipient, a specific time deadline or when it’s more convenient for them to receive a fax.

No matter when you need to schedule your fax, eFax lets you set up your faxes to send whenever and however you want. You’re not tied to a fax machine, and you don’t even need to be in the office when it goes out. The fax will send automatically with no input from you.

This gives you a flexible and powerful faxing tool that helps you interact with your clients in a way that works for them without inconveniencing you. And remember, you can fax from any Gmail account.

2. Send and Receive Faxes from Your Mobile Device

When out of the office, whether you are in front of your laptop or on your tablet or smartphone, you can send and receive faxes from your mobile device. In fact, you can send and receive faxes from any device you can access the internet and your Gmail account from. That includes devices like Chromebooks, iPads, Microsoft Surface devices, and many more.

3. Receive Faxes by Sharing Your Fax Number

With eFax, receiving faxes is the same as if you had a fax machine in front of you without the paper, ink and all the printing.

To receive faxes, all you have to do is share your fax number with the person who wants to send you a fax. Simply give them your eFax number like you would any other phone number. The sender will put in your number to send you the fax, and you will receive it in the Gmail inbox of your choice. The fax will show up as a PDF or a photo, just as it would with any other fax device.

4. Find Faxes in Your Inbox

Faxes will show up in your inbox just like any other email. The sender will usually be the number that sent you the fax message, and the fax itself will appear as an attachment, usually a PDF document. You can open this PDF the same way you would one that was emailed to you. You can then read it on your computer or another electronic device, or you can print it if you need a physical copy.

Faxes usually show up in your primary Gmail inbox, but if they show up in the Promotions or Updates tab, simply mark the sender as “safe” or star the number in your Gmail account. This will ensure that future faxes from that person end up in your Primary email folder and don’t get lost in junk mail or spam.

5. Reply to, Sign or Forward Faxes

You can reply to a fax using eFax. This will send a fax to the sender, letting them know that you have received the fax, for example, that you are responding or that you need some time to process the fax.

Using eFax’s built-in tools, you can also eSign the fax and send it back to the sender—without having to print it out, scan it and fax it back again. You can complete the whole process digitally, and you can even do so on your mobile device.

You will also have the ability to forward faxes as an email attachment or to another standard fax or eFax number. The process is as easy as forwarding an email or any other message. Your fax will either print on a standard fax machine or appear in the recipient’s email inbox if they are using eFax or a similar service.

Why Is Faxing Through Gmail a Better Option?

The traditional fax machine was revolutionary. It was a way to send a physical document through the phone line, much like photocopying something and sending it to someone in one simple step. Over time, as the internet took over, the traditional fax equipment became outdated.

However, a fax is still a secure way to send important documents. To send a traditional fax, you need to:

Have a phone line to plug into the fax machine. You may sometimes even need to maintain a dedicated line
Buy a fax machine and keep it in tip-top condition
Create a cover letter and print the document you want to fax. This means you need a printer, too
Dial the fax number, and hope you don’t get a busy signal or that the paper in the fax machine does not jam

To receive a fax, you need paper and ink in the fax machine—and hope for no paper jams and a clear image when the document is finally faxed.

With eFax’s faxing-via-Gmail capability, you eliminate all of these things.

Benefits of eFax

Using eFax is about more than saving time and resources. Other noteworthy benefits include:

Unlimited online cloud storage
Access to an online fax portal—and eFax Messenger on Windows—for sending and receiving faxes
An easy-to-use mobile app for sending and receiving faxes on the go
The ability to share large files, allowing you to send files that would normally be too large to email or fax
Electronic signatures to avoid the need to print, sign and scan documents

With eFax, you get all of these features and more, bringing faxing into the digital age.

Faxing from Gmail Using eFax

Faxing from Gmail is as easy as setting up an account and choosing your eFax number. You can then send faxes from any Gmail account. You’ll receive faxes in your email inbox by giving out your fax number to anyone who needs it. The fax comes through clear and secure without the need for a separate machine.

You can reply, sign and even forward faxes, treating them like you would any other email with an attachment. And if you need to sign a fax, you can do it digitally, saving paper, ink and valuable time.

Visit eFax.com and set up your account today.