TrueMail

Your email, your domain, your infrastructure. TrueMail is a modern unified mail client that brings Gmail and custom-domain email into one secure, intelligent inbox.

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Inspiration

Email is still one of the most important tools for communication, but managing multiple inboxes can quickly become frustrating. We use Gmail for personal communication, custom-domain email for projects and businesses, and often have to switch between different platforms.

While building our own products, we wanted to explore a simple idea: what if one modern interface could bring all of our email together while still keeping users in control of their infrastructure?

That idea became TrueMail.

What it does

TrueMail is a modern email client that brings different email providers into one unified interface.

Users can connect their Gmail account through Google OAuth and access their Gmail inbox directly from TrueMail. TrueMail also supports custom-domain email through Resend, allowing users to work with their own domain and email infrastructure.

Core features include:

  • Gmail integration through OAuth and Gmail API
  • Custom-domain email through Resend
  • Unified inbox
  • Email threads and conversations
  • Search
  • Labels and mailbox organization
  • Drafts and attachments
  • Reply, reply-all, and forwarding
  • Dark mode
  • Secure server-side credential management

We are also building toward an AI-powered email workspace with features such as:

  • AI email summaries
  • Automatic action-item extraction
  • Tasks generated from emails
  • Natural-language task creation
  • Intelligent inbox organization

The goal is to make the inbox a place where communication can turn directly into action.

How we built it

TrueMail is built using a modern full-stack architecture.

Frontend:

  • Next.js
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS

Backend & Data:

  • Next.js API routes
  • Prisma
  • PostgreSQL

Email infrastructure:

  • Gmail API
  • Google OAuth 2.0
  • Resend
  • Custom domains

The Gmail integration uses OAuth 2.0 so users never need to give TrueMail their Gmail password. After authorization, TrueMail communicates with Gmail through the Gmail API.

We also designed the application around a provider abstraction so that the interface doesn't need to care where an email originates.

                    TrueMail
                       │
                 Unified Mail UI
                       │
                Provider Layer
                 /           \
              Gmail         Resend
               │              │
          Gmail API       Resend API

This architecture makes it easier to add additional providers in the future without rebuilding the entire application.

Challenges we ran into

Gmail OAuth and API integration

Getting a simple "Connect Gmail" experience required understanding OAuth flows, scopes, redirect URIs, access tokens, refresh tokens, and Gmail API permissions.

The challenge was making the experience simple for users while keeping authentication credentials and tokens securely on the backend.

Different email providers

Gmail and Resend have different APIs and capabilities. Building a unified interface meant designing a common layer for operations such as:

Read
Search
Send
Reply
Threads
Labels
Archive
Drafts

This required us to think beyond a single-provider implementation.

Turning email into action

We also wanted TrueMail to go beyond simply displaying emails.

A message such as:

"Please submit the report before Friday."

should potentially become an actionable task rather than another forgotten email.

Designing AI features around useful actions instead of adding AI just for the sake of having AI became another interesting challenge.

Building within hackathon constraints

There were many features we wanted to build, but time and resources forced us to prioritize.

We focused on building a strong foundation first: authentication, provider integrations, inbox management, and an architecture that can scale into a larger email workspace.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that TrueMail has evolved from an idea into a working email platform with real provider integrations.

Some highlights:

  • Built a working Gmail connection flow using Google OAuth
  • Integrated Gmail API for accessing user mail
  • Integrated Resend for custom-domain email
  • Built a unified inbox experience
  • Designed a provider-independent mail architecture
  • Implemented secure server-side credential handling
  • Built the foundation for AI-powered email workflows
  • Created the project as an open-source-friendly platform

Most importantly, we built TrueMail around a simple principle:

Users should be able to choose how their email infrastructure works without sacrificing a modern email experience.

What we learned

We learned that building an email client involves much more than rendering messages on a screen.

Email systems involve:

  • Authentication
  • Authorization
  • Threads
  • Labels
  • Attachments
  • Drafts
  • Search
  • Webhooks
  • Provider-specific APIs
  • Token management
  • Security and privacy

We also learned the importance of abstraction when working with multiple external APIs.

Instead of tightly coupling the entire application to Gmail or Resend, designing a provider layer allows TrueMail to evolve into a platform supporting multiple email services.

Most importantly, we learned that AI becomes much more interesting when it is connected to an actual workflow. Summarizing an email is useful, but extracting the action from that email and turning it into a task can be even more valuable.

What's next for TrueMail

TrueMail is just the beginning.

We want to evolve it from a unified inbox into a complete AI-powered communication workspace.

Our roadmap includes:

  • AI email summaries
  • Automatic action-item extraction
  • Tasks generated directly from emails
  • Natural-language email search
  • Intelligent inbox organization
  • Calendar integration
  • Notes and productivity features
  • More email providers
  • Mobile support
  • Workflow automation

The long-term vision is simple:

Connect your email. Keep your infrastructure. Let TrueMail turn communication into action.

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