Seeing a permission warning popup shortly after logging into an email, an extra red dot in your sidebar, or a red permission warning in certain Shift features?

These will appear if you haven’t allowed certain OAuth permissions. This article will cover everything you need to know about how to manage permission warnings in Shift.

What is an OAuth permission?

OAuth, or Open Authentication, is a standard authorization protocol that allows applications like Shift to secure designated access. OAuth uses authorization tokens to establish an identity between you, the customer, and certain features in Shift. For more detailed information on the OAuth process, read this article.

Which Shift features require OAuth permissions?

How to manage your OAuth permissions

You can manage your OAuth permissions when signing into your Google email account. You can choose any or none of the three permissions. If you deny all permissions, you’ll be able to use your email normally in Shift. However, the Epic Search, Mute Notifications, and Unified Calendar features will be affected. 

Please note that OAuth permissions cannot be reset unless your session expires (i.e., you are signed out) or if you delete and re-add the email to your Shift setup. Furthermore, denying permissions will NOT impact your ability to connect and access your email account in your email-connected Workspace. If you deny all permissions, you will still be able to use your email normally.

How to disable the extra red dot in your sidebar

If you’ve denied any of the three requested permissions for a Google email added to Shift, you’ll see a red exclamation mark in your sidebar for it:

To disable the warning, right-click on the email in the sidebar and deselect Show Permission Warning:

How to dismiss the red permission warning in Shift features

If you see a red permission warning in the Epic Search, Mute Notifications, or Unified Calendar features, it means you have denied a required permission that feature needs to function in at least one of your added Google emails. The red permission warning in these features will not go away until all permissions across all Google emails you’ve added to Shift allow the required permissions (refer to the table in the section above for the permissions required for which features). 

What about Privacy?

The data and information contained in OAuth permissions are never sent to or stored on Shift’s servers. Shift employees or data partners cannot view this information, ever. Allowing these permissions grants the Shift application, which is local to your computer, access to certain features on your behalf. Shift servers, its employees, or data partners do not have the ability to read or access your emails, calendars, or drives, nor have access to the contents of any of your mailboxes, calendars, or drives. This is also outlined explicitly in Shift’s privacy policy. For FAQs about Shift’s privacy policy, read this article.

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What’s Next?

For more information on Shift’s features and how to use them, click here.