Send Emails Using Python

By using Python, you can send emails which can be a valuable skill for automation, communication, and data-driven processes. In this article, we will explore how to send mail from Gmail using Python.

How can you send Emails using Python?

Python offers a library to send emails- "SMTP" Library. "smtplib" creates a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) client session object which is used to send emails to any valid Email ID on the internet.

Prerequisites

Before starting into the main aspect, we need to make sure about some prerequisites. You need to make sure that Python is already installed in your system. To install Python in your system-

You can Refer to this article - Download and Install Python 3 Latest Version

Additionally, you'll need access to an email account with SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) credentials. Most of the email providers such as Gmail or Outlook gives these credentials fo sending mails programmatically.

What is SMTP?

SMTP is a protocol that is used to send emails, and as we know Python provides the 'smtplib' library to interact with it. Begin by importing the library and establishing a connection with your email server. Below are the following steps to send mails:

Step 1: First of all, "smtplib" library needs to be imported.

Step 2: After that create a session, we will be using its instance SMTP to encapsulate an SMTP connection.

s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)

Step 3: In this, you need to pass the first parameter of the server location and the second parameter of the port to use. For Gmail, we use port number 587.

Step 4: For security reasons, now put the SMTP connection in TLS mode. TLS (Transport Layer Security) encrypts all the SMTP commands. After that, for security and authentication, you need to pass your Gmail account credentials in the login instance. The compiler will show an authentication error if you enter an invalid email id or password.

Step 5: Store the message you need to send in a variable say, message. Using the sendmail() instance, send your message. sendmail() uses three parameters: sender_email_id, receiver_email_id and message_to_be_sent. The parameters need to be in the same sequence.

Code Implementation:

This will send the email from your account. After you have completed your task, terminate the SMTP session by using quit(). 

import smtplib
# creates SMTP session
s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
# start TLS for security
s.starttls()
# Authentication
s.login("sender_email_id", "sender_email_id_password")
# message to be sent
message = "Message_you_need_to_send"
# sending the mail
s.sendmail("sender_email_id", "receiver_email_id", message)
# terminating the session
s.quit()

Send Email to Multiple Recipients using Python

If you need to send the same message to different people. You can use for loop for that. For example, you have a list of email ids to which you need to send the same mail. To do so, insert a "for" loop between the initialization and termination of the SMTP session. Loop will initialize turn by turn and after sending the email, the SMTP session will be terminated. 

import smtplib

# list of email_id to send the mail
li = ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"]

for dest in li:
    s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
    s.starttls()
    s.login("sender_email_id", "sender_email_id_password")
    message = "Message_you_need_to_send"
    s.sendmail("sender_email_id", dest, message)
    s.quit()

Some Important Points:

• One of the most amazing things about this code is that we can send any number of emails using this and Gmail mostly puts your mail in the primary section. Sent emails would not be detected as Spam generally.
• File handling can also be used to fetch email IDs from a file and further used for sending emails.
• This code can send simple mail which doesn't have any attachment or any subject.

You can also refer to -  Send mail with attachments from your Gmail account using Python 

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