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Every 5 minutes

Get urgent emails on WhatsApp

When an important email arrives, you get a WhatsApp message with a one-line summary, and the email is labelled in Gmail.

Runs
Every 5 minutes
Apps
Gmail, WhatsApp Business
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Gmail modify; WhatsApp messaging

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 5 minutes, check new Gmail messages, decide which are urgent, send me a WhatsApp with a one-line summary of each urgent one, and label it Urgent.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

When you're on site, in meetings or travelling, you can't keep watching your inbox, but some emails can't wait: a client with a problem, a payment issue, a change to tomorrow's plans.

Checking new mail every few minutes and sending only the urgent ones to WhatsApp lets you step away from email without worrying about missing the one that matters.

What you get out of it

  • Step away from email

    You can leave the inbox closed and still hear about what's urgent.

  • A summary, not the whole email

    Each alert says who wrote and what they need in one line.

  • Labelled for later

    Urgent emails are labelled in Gmail, so they're easy to find when you're back.

  • Quiet for everything else

    Newsletters and routine mail never reach your phone.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 5 minutes it checks Gmail for new emails in your inbox.

  2. AI reads each one and decides whether it's urgent, with a one-line summary.

  3. Urgent emails are sent to you on WhatsApp and labelled Urgent in Gmail.

  4. It remembers which emails it has checked, so you're never alerted twice.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect WhatsApp Business

What you get

RunsEvery 5 minutes
Get urgent emails on WhatsApptoday, 9:00Succeeded
WhatsApp · Inbox📧 Northwind Logistics: tomorrow's delivery slot moved to 7am, needs your OK by 5pm

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and WhatsApp Business steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
urgent_email_alerts_on_whatsapp.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, ai, report_fetched

MY_PHONE = "447700900123"
URGENT_LABEL = "Label_123"
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {"urgent": {"type": "boolean"}, "summary": {"type": "string"}}, "required": ["urgent", "summary"]}
WA = "https://graph.facebook.com/v20.0/your-phone-number-id/messages"

def wa(to, text):
    http.post(WA, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('WHATSAPP_TOKEN')}"},
              json={"messaging_product": "whatsapp", "to": to, "type": "text", "text": {"body": text}}).raise_for_status()
gmail = lambda: build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).users()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    seen = state.get("seen") or []
    ids = [m["id"] for m in gmail().messages().list(userId="me", q="in:inbox newer_than:1d", maxResults=30).execute().get("messages", [])]
    new = [i for i in ids if i not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    for i in new:
        m = gmail().messages().get(userId="me", id=i, format="metadata", metadataHeaders=["From", "Subject"]).execute()
        head = {h["name"]: h["value"] for h in m["payload"]["headers"]}
        r = ai.generate(f"From: {head.get('From')}\nSubject: {head.get('Subject')}\n{m['snippet']}", json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=60,
                        system="Urgent = a client problem, a payment issue, or something needed today.").json
        if r["urgent"]:
            wa(MY_PHONE, f"📧 {head.get('From')}: {r['summary']}")
            gmail().messages().modify(userId="me", id=i, body={"addLabelIds": [URGENT_LABEL]}).execute()
    state.set("seen", (seen + new)[-300:])
    return {"checked": len(new)}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it decide what's urgent?
You describe it in your own words, such as clients reporting a problem or anything mentioning today. The AI follows that description.
Does it read the whole email?
It reads the subject, sender and the first part of the message, which is enough to judge urgency.
Will it mark emails as read?
No. It only adds a label, so your unread count stays the same.
What permissions does it need?
Gmail modify; WhatsApp messaging. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Get urgent emails on WhatsApp” from your assistant

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