Best Email Delegation Tools for Executive Assistants (2026)

The best email delegation tools for executive assistants let one person handle another's inbox without a shared password, and let both people (plus an auditor, later) tell exactly who did what. That last part is where most stacks fail. A generic "give my assistant access" answer picks a native feature, misses the audit gap, and quietly logs the assistant's writes as the executive's own.

This guide compares native Gmail and Outlook delegation, the shared-inbox platforms that add role-based permissions on top of them, and AI Emaily — the AI-native client we build, which adds approval-before-send and a per-action audit trail for the growing number of teams delegating routine work to an agent as well as to a human. Prices change; capabilities change less. Check any vendor's current tier on their pricing page before you commit.

The short answer: who each pick is for#

There is no single best tool because "delegation" hides three different jobs. Pick by which job you're actually doing.

If the executive lives in Gmail and one assistant handles the mail, use Gmail's native delegate access — it's included in every Google account, there is no third party to trust, and the outgoing address correctly shows "sent by" the delegate. If the executive lives in Outlook and needs the assistant to see the calendar as well as the inbox, use Outlook delegate access with a Reviewer, Author, or Editor permission tier. If two or more people are handling the same address in parallel — a chief-of-staff pattern, or an EA covering three executives — go to a shared-inbox platform (Missive, Front, or Hiver) so assignments and role visibility are first-class.

AI Emaily is the pick when the delegation is to an agent as well as to a person — you want a chief-of-staff that drafts every reply, files, chases follow-ups, and blocks cold outreach, but you want to approve each outbound send and have a per-action log a compliance officer can read. That's what we're built for, and we build AI Emaily. Where that isn't the shape of your problem, one of the others below is honestly the better fit.

How we compared them#

We ranked on the axes an executive-assistant pair actually cares about, not on generic feature counts. Four dimensions decided the ordering:

• Password never shared. Delegation is done through OAuth or a native permission model, not a copy of the password in a manager's DM.
• Attribution on outbound mail. The recipient can tell (or, when the executive prefers, cannot tell) that a delegate sent the message. Both behaviours are legitimate — the tool should let you choose.
• Per-action audit. A log that names the actor for every send, archive, label change, and rule run. Regulated teams need this by policy; every other team needs it the first time something goes wrong.
• Approval before send. Especially when the delegate is an AI, the manager sees a queued draft and clicks approve rather than discovering the send after the fact.

Comparison table#

Capabilities as documented on each vendor's own page, verified in August 2026. Verify the current version before you commit — this category ships fast.

The tools, ranked#

Rankings reflect the executive-assistant angle above — audit and permission control, not raw feature count. A tool lower on this list is often the right tool for a different pattern; we say which in each entry.

1. AI Emaily — approval-first delegation to a person or an agent#

We build AI Emaily. It is the pick when the executive wants a chief-of-staff that drafts, files, chases follow-ups, and blocks cold outreach — and wants to approve every outbound send with an audit trail a compliance officer can read.

Three modes make the delegation contract explicit. Manual is the client with no autonomous behaviour. Copilot is the default: the agent drafts and queues, the executive (or the EA acting for them) approves each send. Autopilot is opt-in per rule — the agent files, labels, and can send within tight guardrails, with every action logged and one-click undo. That model works the same whether the delegate is a human EA reviewing the queue or the agent itself.

Writing voice comes from a user-set Personal Context brain plus per-client profiles, not from scraping the sent folder — meaningful when the account is an executive whose past mail was signed by a previous EA. Provider coverage is Gmail, Outlook, and any IMAP/SMTP account, which matters for the exec who runs personal mail on iCloud or Fastmail alongside a Workspace domain.

Honest limits: we are a client, not a shared-inbox platform. If four support agents share one address and you need round-robin assignment, SLA timers, and CSAT surveys, Front is a more mature product for that shape and we say so below. And we do not ship a native Android app — Android is a PWA today.

2. Gmail delegate access — the native answer, and often the correct one#

For an executive on Google Workspace or personal Gmail with one EA, native delegate access is included, requires no third party, and is genuinely well-designed. The executive goes to Settings, Accounts and Import, Grant access to your account, and adds the delegate's Google address.

The limits are real but often acceptable. A delegate can read, send, and delete mail, apply labels, and manage filters. A delegate cannot change the executive's password, cannot use Google Chat or Meet in Gmail, and cannot use Gemini, Smart Compose, or Smart Reply on the delegated account. Outgoing mail shows "sent by" the delegate — you cannot hide the delegation, which the exec-EA world mostly considers a feature.

The delegate ceiling in Google Workspace is 1,000 delegates per account, expanded from 25 in early 2021. The Gmail API still caps programmatic delegates at 25, which matters if you script the setup. For the exec-EA pair, one delegate is enough — this is the free pick when the other axes below don't apply.

3. Outlook / Microsoft 365 delegate access — three permission tiers and a real audit trail#

Outlook delegation is more granular than Gmail's, which matters if the executive wants the EA on the calendar but not every email. The executive assigns one of three permission levels: Reviewer (read-only), Author (read and create), or Editor (read, create, modify, delete). Permissions apply per folder — Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks — so an EA can have Editor on the calendar and Reviewer on the inbox.

Send behaviour splits into two modes. Send on Behalf is granted through standard delegation and shows "[Delegate] on behalf of [Manager]" in the From line. Send As has to be granted by an Exchange admin and hides the delegate entirely — the recipient sees mail from the executive alone. Both are legitimate; which one the executive picks is a policy call worth writing down.

Audit is where Outlook wins. Microsoft Purview's mailbox audit logging covers delegate actions by default, including sends, moves, and permission changes, so compliance can answer "who sent this" without a third-party add-on. For an exec-EA pair in Microsoft 365 that needs clear accountability, native delegation plus Purview is often the whole answer.

4. Missive — role-based shared inbox with per-user attribution#

Missive turns the exec's account (or several accounts) into a shared inbox with per-user roles. Each teammate signs in with their own identity, so every reply, assignment, and comment is attributed to a real person — no shared login.

The permission model is the key feature for the EA pattern. Team members are either Active (they get notifications and see conversations in Team Inboxes) or Observers (they watch and audit without being pulled into the notification stream). An EA covering three executives can be Active on one account and Observer on the others. Assignments, @mention notes, and live collaborative drafting let an EA prepare a reply the executive edits or approves inline before it sends — the closest thing here to AI Emaily's approval gate, built for humans rather than an agent.

Packaging is per-seat with a free tier that extends across email, SMS, and social channels.

5. Front — inbox delegation as a first-class feature#

Front ships an explicit "Email Delegation" feature. The executive picks a teammate, chooses which sections of the inbox to share (all, or specific team inboxes), and the delegate sees the exec's inbox alongside their own. Delegates can archive, snooze, and reply — but Front's documented behaviour is that a delegate replies from their own address, not as the executive. If you need the delegate to send as the exec, use a shared inbox instead of the delegation feature.

Assignment, rules, and comments are attributed per user, and Front's audit surface is deeper than Gmail's or a Chrome overlay's. Packaging (verified August 2026) is three tiers — Starter, Professional, Enterprise — with Starter capped at one channel type and ten automation rules, and AI Copilot, QA, and CSAT sold as paid add-ons on the lower tiers. Check front.com/pricing for current tier shape and seat caps.

Front is the strongest pick when "delegation" really means several people sharing one address with SLA discipline — the support-ops shape, not the exec-EA shape.

6. Hiver — Google Workspace overlay for teams that live in Gmail#

Hiver installs as a Chrome overlay on Google Workspace Gmail and adds shared-inbox mechanics — assignment, notes, status, collision alerts — without moving the team out of Gmail. Every teammate logs in with their own Google account through OAuth, so passwords stay private and each action is attributed to a real user in Hiver's admin log.

Per-user roles give granular control over what each teammate can see and change. The Admin Panel names a primary user whose Google account is the principal connection to the underlying shared address. For an EA who runs one shared address for an executive's public-facing mail and needs a paralegal or second EA to see and reply without any of them ever leaving Gmail, Hiver is a clean pattern.

Two caveats. Hiver is Google-only — no Microsoft 365. And it is an overlay, so a Gmail redesign occasionally reshuffles the UI before Hiver ships an update. Check hiverhq.com for current plan tiers; the product's shipping tiers (Free, Growth, Pro, Elite) have moved before.

7. Superhuman Mail — concede this one, and use one of the picks above#

Superhuman Mail is the Gmail/Outlook speed client Grammarly acquired in July 2025 and, after the October 2025 rename, sells as part of the Superhuman Suite. On the pure keyboard-workflow axis, Superhuman is genuinely faster than we are — we won't pretend otherwise. If the executive is a solo power user with no EA in the loop, it's worth the trial.

For this article's job, though, it is the wrong pick. Superhuman does not currently support delegate access — the company's own help center describes it as on the roadmap and points users to the account-switching workflow as the closest available equivalent. Shared inboxes, collaborative drafts, and delegation as a feature aren't shipping today.

If the executive has already bought Superhuman: pair it with Gmail or Outlook's native delegation for you and let them keep the client they like.

8. Fyxer — overlay drafting, not delegation#

Fyxer is an AI overlay on Gmail and Outlook that drafts replies and triages the inbox — it is not a client, and it is not a delegation tool in the exec-EA sense. Drafts appear in your Drafts folder for you to review and send, a lightweight "AI prepared it, human approves" pattern that some EAs like because it lives entirely inside Gmail.

The gap: there is no shared attribution. Fyxer drafts appear as your drafts; there is no "AI-authored, awaiting approval" queue, no per-actor audit, and no way to hand the same account to a human EA and to Fyxer with clear roles.

Use it when a single executive wants drafting help. Reach for AI Emaily, Missive, or Front when the delegation contract itself is the problem.

The audit picture — where the money is#

Compliance officers, boards, and journalists ask the same question after something goes wrong: who sent this. Native Gmail can't fully answer that for a delegate. Native Outlook plus Purview can. Missive, Front, Hiver, and AI Emaily all can, by design. If the executive is in a regulated seat — legal, finance, healthcare, listed-company IR — treat the audit axis as the tiebreaker.

How to choose for your situation#

Match the pick to the shape of the pair, not to the vendor with the loudest marketing.

1. 1

   One executive, one EA, Google Workspace

   Use Gmail delegate access. Free, included, well-designed, and the "sent by" attribution on outbound mail is the correct default for most exec-EA pairs. Add AI Emaily on top only if the executive wants an agent drafting and chasing follow-ups with approval before send.

2. 2

   One executive, one EA, Microsoft 365

   Use Outlook delegate access at Author or Editor. Turn on Purview mailbox audit logging so the delegate's actions are logged per user. Ask an Exchange admin for Send As only if the executive wants the delegation hidden — otherwise Send on Behalf is the right default.

3. 3

   One EA covering several executives

   Missive or Front. Both attribute every action per user and let the EA switch between accounts without a browser-tab shuffle. Missive is the lighter lift; Front is stronger when SLA discipline and macros matter.

4. 4

   Executive who wants an agent as well as an EA

   AI Emaily. The Copilot approval model is the same whether the approver is the executive or their EA — the queue is the queue. We build AI Emaily; try it at aiemaily.com.

5. 5

   Executive in a regulated seat

   Outlook plus Purview, Missive, Front, or AI Emaily. Any of those give you a per-action log with the actor named. Native Gmail delegation alone doesn't, so add a layer or pick a different account model.

Security — what to insist on before you delegate#

The other two non-negotiables are minimum OAuth scopes and a per-action audit surface. If a tool cannot show a compliance officer who sent a specific message on a specific date, it is not delegation — it is a shared login with better branding.