Google Fax Using Your Gmail Account

These past few years there has been an increasing interest in Google fax services. Users are accustomed to using the many Google online services and now they want a solution that can integrate with them. The solution has come in the hand of email fax services; they are extremely affordable and easy to use.

Thanks to an email fax service, you can link your fax account with your Gmail account, letting you send and receive faxes via your email account in just a matter of minutes. This integration is possible thanks to a virtual fax number, which is in charge of redirecting all incoming faxes to your inbox. Right now you have the possibility of choosing between local and toll-free virtual fax numbers at no extra charge.

 On the other hand, when you send fax from Gmail, you are sending an email message with an attachment (the actual file to be faxed). This email travels to the email fax service’s powerful fax servers where documents are converted into image files compatible with all legacy fax machines out there. This is a technology that ensures backwards compatibility. People sending you faxes won’t notice a difference.

But sending and receiving faxes is just the tip of the iceberg. There are much more things you can do when using a Google-compatible fax service. We are preparing an article with the best features these services bring, among them the ability to fax from cell phone, schedule faxes and send a single fax to multiple recipients at the same time!

Can I Integrate Gmail Fax on My Cell Phone?

Gmail faxing is already a powerful tool to take your communications to the next level, but staying in front of a computer is not always possible, especially when your job requires you to be constantly on the move.  In these cases, integrating your Gmail fax account with a mobile solution is your best alternative.

Many folks have emailed us asking if they can access digital fax on a mobile phone. Yes you can fax using a cell phone, provided that your cell phone is a smartphone.  Some companies such as MyFax, Ringcentral Fax and eFax have developed mobile apps that can sync with your Gmail fax account. They use powerful smarthpone technology and apps; currently you can find apps for iPhones, Blackberry phones and Android phones.

To get started you need to sign up with an email fax service, but be careful because not all of them offer this option.  If you are in doubt just ask them via customer support (if they don’t answer your question, then it probably isn’t worth spending your time with this service!).

Once you have opened your account, you need to grab your cell phone and head over to the place where you download apps. In the case of iPhone users, for example, this would be the App Store. There you need to download the app that has been developed by the service of your choice.  These apps are totally free to download, avoid paying for fax apps that aren’t really helpful.

The app will then ask you to enter your login details, so proceed with that step and from there your app will be enabled to work on your phone.  You can configure the way notifications arrive and how you sort your faxes.  But what’s more important, you will be able to send and receive faxes instantly without wasting any time.
Be sure to try out these features first, by suing a free trial if you can.

Receive Fax Gmail

Receiving fax using Gmail is very easy and the only thing you need is the help of an email fax service.

How does it work?

Well, an email fax service is a company that lets you send fax from Gmail and receive faxes using nothing but your email.  Using powerful fax server technology they are able to convert fax documents into digital files and viceversa in just a matter of seconds, letting you enjoy the perks of such technology.

These services provide you a virtual fax number, which is what you need to receive fax on Gmail.  Senders will only use this number and won’t notice that you are using e-mail.

How Can You Get started?

These services charge you a monthly fee to use them, but you can take advantage of free trials and start faxing for FREE during 30 days.  Free trial accounts come with all features enabled, which means that you will not only be able to send and receive fax on Gmail but also enjoy other features such as mobile faxing, fax scheduling, fax storage and broadcasting without paying a dime.

Once the trial is over you can choose to continue with a given service or use another alternative.  Just be sure to cancel your trial before the 30 days have passed, because once the time is over, you are billed for the new month.

How do I Receive Faxes?

This is done automatically.  A person send a fax, it then goes through a conversion process to ensure 100% compatibility, and it is then forwarded to your email account, where you can review them as email attachments.

Send Fax from Gmail

Did you know that Gmail can be used for more than simple e-mail communications? If your business depends greatly on fax communications, you can now manage all your faxes digitally straight from your Gmail account. 

Gmail faxing is possible thanks to the help of email fax services, companies that put the bridge between fax and Gmail thanks to powerful fax server technology.  You can use any email address for this purpose.  In reality, recipients and senders won’t know that you are using a free email address, they will receive faxes normally and will send you faxes using a virtual fax number.

Upon creating your account with the fax service of your choice, you will receive a virtual fax number totally free of charge. This free number will allow you to receive fax on Gmail automatically without the need of complicated configurations and requirements. All services have different options when it comes to choosing your Gmail fax number, most of them will help you choose between a local and toll-free fax number.  If you are outside the USA check that the service of your choice has international coverage. Some companies like eFax cover many countries around the world 8with local numbers included), while others such as Ringcentral and MyFax have specific plans and prices for UK and Canada.

When you send a fax via Gmail, you send it as an attachment.  There are a lot of different file formats you can work with, but among the most common ones you have JPG, TIFF, DOC, XLS, PDF, TXT among others.  Compatibility with different file formats will depend on the service you are using.  Right now, the option that brings most compatibility is MyFax, which supports up to 142 different file types.

When you press SEND, this attachment travels to the fax company’s servers, where it is converted into a fax image.  Once the digital file has been converted, it travels to the recipient’s location, where it can be received by a fax machine without problems. How much does this process works? Well, in average you can expect a fax to be sent within 30 seconds / 1 minute. You receive a confirmation afterwards.

Another point to keep in mind when you want to start out with using fax with gmail is that the recipient’s number will be entered as if it is an email address. Luckily, there’s nothing complicated about this.  Let’s say your fax number is “303-477-4311”; you go to the TO field in Gmail’s compose window and enter 3034774311@faxservice.com.  You just replace faxservice.com with the information that is provided to you at the moment of signing up. For example, if you are going to send a fax via RingCentral, you just type 3034774311@rcfax.com. This will send the fax to the company’s servers and at the same time indicate the number where it must be delivered.

As you can see, sending fax via Gmail is very easy and receiving them is even easier! Right now is a perfect time to get started with this new way of faxing, there are plenty of good alternatives to choose from (we will take a look at them in upcoming posts), and the best of all is that you can start for free.  How? By taking advantage of free trials.  The top companies in the field are offering 30 day free trials where you can fully test the features of a service, and you can even opt to have a virtual fax number.