Skip to content
Notis

File Updates Notify Your Email Threads

When files change in Drive, Notis replies to your team thread with details. Updates appear where your team is already communicating.

Trigger

File Updated

Triggers when a file's metadata or content changes in Google Drive.

Action

Reply to email thread

Sends a reply within a specific gmail thread using the original thread's subject, requiring a valid `thread id` and correctly formatted email addresses. supports attachments via the `attachment` parameter with valid `s3key`, `mimetype`, and `name`.

Why this helps

File changes get missed because notifications scatter across apps. Teams have to say 'Hey, I updated the doc' manually or changes go unnoticed.

  • Updates appear in team threads automatically
  • Reduce need for manual 'just updated' messages
  • Keep all related communication in one place
  • Reduce context-switching for teams

Setup

Build it in a few focused steps.

  • 1Connect Google Drive and Gmail to Notis.
  • 2Identify the email thread where updates should be posted (e.g., your team thread about a project).
  • 3Tell Notis: 'When files change in my Drive, reply to [thread name] with an update summary.'
  • 4Test by editing a file in Drive.
  • 5Review the reply and refine the summary format if needed.

Questions about this workflow

What update information gets included?

File name, what changed, who made the change, and a link to the file in Drive.

Can I include custom text in the reply?

Yes. Customize your automation prompt with any additional context you want included.

Will this create duplicate notifications?

No. Choose either thread replies or separate emails, not both.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Supported Triggers and Actions

Notis builds workflows that link Google Drive to Gmail. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.

Google Drive triggers

Gmail actions

Comment Added (Docs/Sheets/Slides)

Triggers when a new comment is added to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

TriggerPolling

Modify email labels

Adds and/or removes specified gmail labels for a message; ensure `message id` and all `label ids` are valid (use 'listlabels' for custom label ids).

ActionInstant

File Created

Triggers when a new file is created in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create email draft

Creates a gmail email draft, supporting to/cc/bcc, subject, plain/html body (ensure `is html=true` for html), attachments, and threading.

ActionInstant

File Deleted or Trashed

Triggers when a file is moved to trash or permanently deleted in Drive.

TriggerPolling

Create label

Creates a new label with a unique name in the specified user's gmail account.

ActionInstant

File Shared (Permissions Added)

Triggers when new sharing permissions are granted to a file or folder. Uses Drive's `changes.list` endpoint with inline `permissions` in the `fields` mask so each change carries the file's current permission set provider-atomically. We diff that against `seen_permission_keys` to identify newly added grants. Drive page tokens are the primary cursor; if Drive rejects a stored token, the trigger raises `PollingTriggerError` without clearing state rather than silently re-baselining and dropping events. Limitation: truly ephemeral permissions (added and revoked between two polls without any other file modification in between) are not detected. Drive Activity API would catch those but requires an additional OAuth scope and a different payload contract.

TriggerPolling

Delete Draft

Permanently deletes a specific gmail draft using its id; ensure the draft exists and the user has necessary permissions for the given `user id`.

ActionInstant

File Updated

Triggers when a file's metadata or content changes in Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Delete message

Permanently deletes a specific email message by its id from a gmail mailbox; for `user id`, use 'me' for the authenticated user or an email address to which the authenticated user has delegated access.

ActionInstant

Google Drive Changes

Triggers when changes are detected in a Google Drive.

TriggerPolling

Fetch emails

Fetches a list of email messages from a gmail account, supporting filtering, pagination, and optional full content retrieval.

ActionInstant

New File Matching Query

Triggers when a new Google Drive file matches a provided query. This is the legacy query-centric trigger: it preserves Drive API query config such as ``corpora`` / ``driveId`` aliases and emits the historical ``file_matching_query`` event type. ``FileCreatedTrigger`` covers the broader "new file" case and emits ``file_created``.

TriggerPolling

Fetch message by message ID

Fetches a specific email message by its id, provided the `message id` exists and is accessible to the authenticated `user id`.

ActionInstant

Fetch Message by Thread ID

Retrieves messages from a gmail thread using its `thread id`, where the thread must be accessible by the specified `user id`.

ActionInstant

Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.

Not just Google Drive and Gmail. Any combination from 1,000+ integrations.

When this happens · Trigger

Do this · Action

Save your first hour today.

7 days free trial with 20$ free usage included.
No card. Works with personal or business Gmail.