Send an Email From Power Automate That Doesn't Come from You

[ScottShearer]

I am constantly scanning the Power Automate community site and I see certain question repeatedly pop-up.  One of those questions is how to send an email from Power Automate that doesn't come from the Flow author.   There are a number of options as I will explain below.

By default, when sending an email using the Office 365 Outlook Send an email (V2) action that the connection determines who the email will be from.  When adding an action the connection for the Flow author is automatically used.  So, if I author the Flow, the email will be from me.

To change who the email is from, you have two options.  

Add a connection

The first option is to create a connection for the additional account.  You'll need the users email address as well as password to add the connection.  To add the connection, click on "Add a new connection" under "My connections.

You will be prompted for the the email address and password associated with the account.  Once that information is provided, a new connection is created and automatically selected for this action.

Once the connection has been created, it can be selected at any time in this or other Flows for any action that requires a connection.  With the new connection selected, emails sent from this action will be from the account associated with the new connection.

Use the "Send as" feature

Another option is for you to use the "Send as" option. You'll need to click on "Show advanced options" to configure "Send as".

To use this option, you are required to have "Send as" permissions granted to you in order to send an email which shows as being from that account.  

Shared Mailbox

Rather than using the "Send an email" action, you might also consider using the "Send an email from a shared mailbox (V2)" action. Obviously, you need to have a shared mailbox and have permissions to send an email from that shared mailbox.  The email will show as being sent from the shared mailbox and not the Flow author.  An advantage of using this that no additional Microsoft 365 licenses are being used - there is no cost for a shared mailbox.

The final option available to you without purchasing third party connectors or services is to use the "Send an email notification" action.  Emails sent using this action show as from "Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate".

None of the options that I have presented are better than any other option.  The choice is totally dependent on you specific requirements.

[ArchitectMadhan]

@ScottShearer , Nice info. In most of the clients place they ask for this kind automated emails with some generic email addresses in From address.

[ScottShearer]

@ArchitectMadhan 

Thanks!

[marybb]

@ScottShearer , thanks for the clear explanation.

This is the issue I currently have: I want to send an email to the Service Desk of my company every time a MS form is submitted. It looks simple, I have configured the flow in Power Automate, however, the complex part is that I want the sender to be the person who submitted the form, so the shared email concept doesn’t really work. Does anyone have an idea of how to solve this issue? 
The email I sent to the Service Desk automatically generates a ticket in the ticketing system, and the sender is notified with an email which includes the ticket #, so that’s why it is important to have the right sender

[Amira_Shlebik]

thank you sir

[David-]

Thank you! There are so many actions in Power Automate it is tough to know everything that is available. I always used the send on behalf of option. I just switched a workflow over to using the Send from a shared mailbox action and it seems to improve the performance of my workflow. In addition, I don't have all of these e-mail in my sent folder. They're now in the sent folder of the shared mailbox only.

The only feature missing in the Send from a shared mailbox is the ability to set the  sensitivity label.

[jainbhavesh89]

Hi David,

how to enable this setting?

" I just switched a workflow over to using the Send from a shared mailbox action "

could you please elaborate?

[d_aleshire]

@marybb instead of a Microsoft form you could simply create a canvas app form and have an instant cloud flow tied to the submit button.. When a user clicks the button the information can be stored and an email sent out. The initiating credentials of the user that clicks the button should be used for the flow. Automated and scheduled cloud flows always use the connector credentials of the flow.

[Larimer77]

Great tip! I can see how this could be useful.

[asd2525]

@marybb I know this is an old post but what I would recommend is putting the person who filled out the form into the Reply To: field. That should be sufficient for when they reply to the original email to get it to go to the sender.

[suarezsara]

very insightful

[Tracynguyen]

nice sharing, thanks a lot!

[Marius_O]

Thanks a lot Scott! This saved my day 👌👌

[Chafik94]

Thanks  a lot Scott! i was looking for the last option