📧 Laravel 12 Send Emails Using Gmail’s SMTP Server (Step by Step Guide)

byBambhaniya Jasu -

Sending emails is a core part of most web applications. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to send emails in Laravel 12 using Gmail’s SMTP server with clear steps and sample images.

🛠️ Step 1: Install Laravel 12 Project

If you haven’t created a Laravel project yet, start with this:

composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel-email-app
cd laravel-email-app

🔑 Step 2: Enable Less Secure App Access in Gmail

To use Gmail SMTP, you need to allow access:

  1. Go to Google Account Security.
  2. Enable 2-Step Verification and generate an App Password.
  3. Use the app password in your .env file.

📝 Step 3: Configure .env File

Open the .env file in your project root and update mail configuration:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=your_email@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_app_password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=your_email@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

📤 Step 4: Create Mail Class

Run the artisan command to create a Mailable class:

php artisan make:mail TestEmail

Open app/Mail/TestEmail.php and update:

namespace App\Mail;

use Illuminate\Bus\Queueable;
use Illuminate\Mail\Mailable;
use Illuminate\Queue\SerializesModels;

class TestEmail extends Mailable
{
    use Queueable, SerializesModels;

    public $details;

    public function __construct($details)
    {
        $this->details = $details;
    }

    public function build()
    {
        return $this->subject('Test Email from Laravel 12')
                    ->view('emails.test');
    }
}

🖼️ Step 5: Create Email View Blade File

Create a new view file:

resources/views/emails/test.blade.php

And add:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Laravel Email</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>{{ $details['title'] }}</h1>
    <p>{{ $details['body'] }}</p>
    <p>Thank you!</p>
</body>
</html>

🧪 Step 6: Send Email via Route or Controller

Option A: Using Route

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;
use App\Mail\TestEmail;

Route::get('/send-email', function () {
    $details = [
        'title' => 'Hello from Laravel',
        'body' => 'This is a test email sent using Gmail SMTP.'
    ];

    Mail::to('recipient@example.com')->send(new TestEmail($details));
    
    return "Email sent successfully!";
});

Option B: Using Controller

php artisan make:controller MailController
// app/Http/Controllers/MailController.php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;
use App\Mail\TestEmail;

class MailController extends Controller
{
    public function send()
    {
        $details = [
            'title' => 'Laravel Email',
            'body' => 'This is a test email from Gmail SMTP.'
        ];

        Mail::to('recipient@example.com')->send(new TestEmail($details));

        return "Email Sent!";
    }
}

Add the route:

Route::get('/send-mail', [MailController::class, 'send']);

✅ Step 7: Test in Browser

Start your Laravel server:

php artisan serve

Open in browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8000/send-mail

If configured correctly, you’ll see:

Email Sent!

🧩 Bonus: Handle Email Failures

You can handle failures with:

if (Mail::failures()) {
    return 'Email Failed!';
}

📌 Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to send emails from Laravel 12 using Gmail SMTP with step-by-step configuration and practical examples. Always make sure to use App Passwords for Gmail and never expose credentials in public repositories.

Tags

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post

Contact Form