Managing Vacation Settings

You can use Settings to configure scheduled auto-reply for an account.

For information on how to get or update, see the Settings reference.

Configuring auto-reply

Auto-reply requires a response subject and body, either HTML or plain text. It can be enabled indefinitely, or limited to a defined period of time. You can also restrict auto-reply to known contacts or domain members.

Example of setting an auto-reply for a fixed period of time, restricting replies to users in the same domain:

JavaPython
gmail/snippets/src/main/java/EnableAutoReply.java
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonError;
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequestInitializer;
import com.google.api.client.http.javanet.NetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.gson.GsonFactory;
import com.google.api.services.gmail.Gmail;
import com.google.api.services.gmail.GmailScopes;
import com.google.api.services.gmail.model.VacationSettings;
import com.google.auth.http.HttpCredentialsAdapter;
import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;

/* Class to demonstrate the use of Gmail Enable Auto Reply API*/
public class EnableAutoReply {
  /**
   * Enables the auto reply
   *
   * @return the reply message and response metadata.
   * @throws IOException - if service account credentials file not found.
   */
  public static VacationSettings autoReply() throws IOException {
        /* Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
          TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity for
           guides on implementing OAuth2 for your application. */
    GoogleCredentials credentials = GoogleCredentials.getApplicationDefault()
        .createScoped(GmailScopes.GMAIL_SETTINGS_BASIC);
    HttpRequestInitializer requestInitializer = new HttpCredentialsAdapter(credentials);

    // Create the gmail API client
    Gmail service = new Gmail.Builder(new NetHttpTransport(),
        GsonFactory.getDefaultInstance(),
        requestInitializer)
        .setApplicationName("Gmail samples")
        .build();

    try {
      // Enable auto reply by restricting domain with start time and end time
      VacationSettings vacationSettings = new VacationSettings()
          .setEnableAutoReply(true)
          .setResponseBodyHtml(
              "I am on vacation and will reply when I am back in the office. Thanks!")
          .setRestrictToDomain(true)
          .setStartTime(LocalDateTime.now()
              .toEpochSecond(ZoneOffset.from(ZonedDateTime.now())) * 1000)
          .setEndTime(LocalDateTime.now().plusDays(7)
              .toEpochSecond(ZoneOffset.from(ZonedDateTime.now())) * 1000);

      VacationSettings response = service.users().settings()
          .updateVacation("me", vacationSettings).execute();
      // Prints the auto-reply response body
      System.out.println("Enabled auto reply with message : " + response.getResponseBodyHtml());
      return response;
    } catch (GoogleJsonResponseException e) {
      // TODO(developer) - handle error appropriately
      GoogleJsonError error = e.getDetails();
      if (error.getCode() == 403) {
        System.err.println("Unable to enable auto reply: " + e.getDetails());
      } else {
        throw e;
      }
    }
    return null;
  }
}
gmail/snippet/settings snippets/enable_auto_reply.py
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

import google.auth
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError
from numpy import long


def enable_auto_reply():
  """Enable auto reply.
  Returns:Draft object, including reply message and response meta data.

  Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
  TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity
  for guides on implementing OAuth2 for the application.
  """
  creds, _ = google.auth.default()

  try:
    # create gmail api client
    service = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=creds)

    epoch = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0)
    now = datetime.now()
    start_time = (now - epoch).total_seconds() * 1000
    end_time = (now + timedelta(days=7) - epoch).total_seconds() * 1000
    vacation_settings = {
        "enableAutoReply": True,
        "responseBodyHtml": (
            "I am on vacation and will reply when I am "
            "back in the office. Thanks!"
        ),
        "restrictToDomain": True,
        "startTime": long(start_time),
        "endTime": long(end_time),
    }

    # pylint: disable=E1101
    response = (
        service.users()
        .settings()
        .updateVacation(userId="me", body=vacation_settings)
        .execute()
    )
    print(f"Enabled AutoReply with message: {response.get('responseBodyHtml')}")

  except HttpError as error:
    print(f"An error occurred: {error}")
    response = None

  return response


if __name__ == "__main__":
  enable_auto_reply()

To disable auto-reply, update the resource and set enableAutoReply to false. If an endTime is configured, auto-reply will automatically disable once the specified time has passed.