How do I create a Gmail app password?

Google will not accept your normal password from a mail app, so you generate a separate 16-character one just for CloakFeed. It takes about a minute.

Before you start

You need 2-Step Verification switched on for your Google account. Without it, Google does not offer app passwords at all.

Steps

1. Open myaccount.google.com/apppasswords in your browser and sign in.
2. Type a name you will recognise later — "CloakFeed" is fine — and tap Create.
3. Copy the 16-character password Google shows you. It is shown once; if you lose it, delete the entry and make a new one.
4. In CloakFeed, tap + at the top of Home and choose Sync with Gmail (or go to Settings › Integrations and tap Connect next to Gmail). Enter your Gmail address, paste the app password, and tap Connect.

What happens next

Tap Find my newsletters. CloakFeed connects straight from your phone to Gmail over an encrypted connection and reads the last 90 days of your inbox first. You confirm which senders are newsletters before anything is saved; the progress shows at the bottom of Home.

After that it keeps going on its own: new mail is checked automatically in the background, and older mail arrives a batch at a time ("Caught up to March 2026 — 120 older emails to go") until it reaches the start of your mailbox. For a batch you don't want, tap Skip these, show the next batch. To limit syncing to particular newsletters, use Settings › Integrations › Sync from.

Mail is opened read-only. Nothing in Gmail is marked read, moved or deleted.

To disconnect, go to Settings › Integrations and tap Disconnect. That deletes the app password from your phone's keystore. You can also revoke it from the Google page above, which cuts the app off immediately.