Embedding a Google Form directly in an email can seem like a convenient way to get responses without asking recipients to click external links.
In this article, we’ll explain how to embed a Google Form in Gmail, why this feature is limited in practice, the drawbacks of embedding Google Forms in emails, and introduce involve.me as an interactive alternative.
We’ll also answer frequently asked questions, such as whether Google Forms can be embedded in email, why an embedded form might not work, and how to send Google Forms with prefilled answers.
Steps to Embed a Google Form in Gmail
Google Forms has a built-in option to send a form via email, which inserts the form content into the email body for recipients using Gmail. Follow these steps to embed a Google Form in an email (specifically using Gmail):
Create or open your Google Form: Make sure your form is ready with all questions.
Click the Send button: In the Google Forms editor, click Send at the top right. This opens the Send form dialog.
Select the email sending method: In the Send form dialog (usually the default tab), enter the email addresses of your recipients, add a subject line, and include any message you want in the email.
Check “Include form in email”: At the bottom of the email send form, you’ll see a checkbox labeled “Include form in email.” Check this box to embed the form into the email body. (If you don’t check this, the email will only contain a link to the form.)
Send the email: Click Send to email the form. Recipients on Gmail should see the form questions directly inside the email and can attempt to fill it out there.
When you include the form in the email, Google generates an email with the form’s content embedded. For example, if you created a survey form, the email will display the questions and answer fields directly in the message. Gmail recipients can enter their answers and click a Submit button without leaving their inbox.
Note: This embedded form feature has a few conditions. It works best when sending to a small number of recipients (the Google Forms interface isn’t designed for mass mailing lists) and when those recipients are using Gmail.
Why You Can’t Truly Embed Google Forms in Email
While Google Forms lets you “include form in email,” it’s important to understand that most email clients do not support interactive form elements. In other words, you can embed the form’s HTML into an email, but outside of Gmail the form is unlikely to function properly (or at all).
Major email providers and apps like Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo Mail, and many others block the scripts or iframes that make forms work. This is done intentionally to protect users from malicious content. As a result, a Google Form embedded in an email will often appear broken, unresponsive, or simply as a static image/text for a large portion of your audience.
Consider how different email environments handle an embedded Google Form:
Gmail (desktop/web): If the recipient is reading the email in Gmail, the Google Form may appear and allow input. Google’s own email system can recognize and render a Google Form to some extent. Even then, there are limitations (for example, certain question types like file upload cannot be submitted via email). Gmail might allow a simple quiz or survey to be filled out in the message, but this is the exception, not the rule.
Other email clients (Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.): Most other clients will not execute the form. They might display the form fields in a degraded format or strip them out entirely. Often, recipients will just see a prompt like “Having trouble viewing this form? Fill it out in Google Forms” with a link. This means the form isn’t truly embedded, the user will have to click out to the browser to respond.
Mobile email apps: Since over 65–81% of emails are now opened on mobile devices, it’s critical to note that mobile email apps are even less likely to support embedded forms. They prioritize security and simplicity, usually showing a link instead of an interactive form. This can confuse users if the email looked like a form but then doesn’t work when tapped on a phone.
Drawbacks of Embedding Google Forms in Emails
Even when an embedded Google Form does display in the email (e.g. for Gmail users), there are several drawbacks and limitations to be aware of:
Limited Support and Unreliable Functionality
As noted, the embedded form will likely not work for many recipients. For example, if you send it to a mix of Gmail and Outlook users, the Outlook users might just see a static snapshot of the form or a “Loading…” message with a link. This inconsistent behavior can lead to confusion. One Google Forms guide warns that outside of Google Workspace, the embed feature is “unreliable” and “sometimes, the embedded form just doesn’t work.” In practice, you might end up with some recipients thinking the form is broken.
No Guaranteed Submission
Even if the form fields appear, there’s no guarantee the recipient’s answers will submit correctly via email. Because email clients block scripts, the Submit button might not function, or the data might not transmit. Some users might fill out the form in the email, click submit, and nothing happens, leading to lost responses. Google Forms typically provides a fallback (“fill out in Google Forms” link), meaning the user must click through to actually submit. This extra step defeats the purpose of embedding and can frustrate users.
Design and Format Issues
Emails are coded much more restrictively than web pages. An embedded Google Form’s layout might break in various email clients. It could look fine in one client but garbled in another, with misaligned fields or odd spacing. Responsive design is a concern too, the form might not resize well on mobile screens when inside an email. Google Forms have fixed widths that could overflow in a narrow mobile email display, for instance. This inconsistent rendering hurts the user experience.
Spam and Deliverability Risks
Inserting complex HTML like forms or iframes into an email can trigger spam filters. Many email servers view <iframe> tags or form inputs as potential red flags (since scammers have abused forms in emails in the past). Thus, trying to embed a form could reduce your email deliverability, your message might land in spam folders more often. One forum expert noted that using an iframe for a form is “commonly associated with scamming or hacking attempts” and can get emails flagged as spam. For marketing emails, maintaining good deliverability is crucial; a harmless embedded form could hurt that.
No Bulk Sending Option
Google Forms’ embed-in-email feature is not designed for large email campaigns. You have to enter recipients manually or use your Google contacts. There’s no mail-merge or mailing list management in the Google Forms interface. If you have, say, 500 customers to send a survey to, you wouldn’t realistically use Google Forms’ email send one by one. You’d export the form link to an email marketing platform. So, for mass distribution, embedding via Google Forms isn’t practical.
Lack of Analytics on Email Interaction
If someone fills out the form directly in the email (in the rare cases it works), you’ll get their response in Google Forms, but you won’t know anything about their email interaction. For example, you won’t know if they opened the email but didn’t submit, or if they tried to click something. By contrast, when you send a link, your email service can track clicks, and your form or website can track page views and conversions. Embedded forms in emails make it harder to track engagement metrics, an important consideration for marketers. (When forms don’t work and users abandon them, that data is essentially lost.)
A More Interactive Alternative: involve.me
If you’re looking for a way to collect information or run surveys via email that overcomes the limitations of Google Forms, involve.me is a powerful alternative to consider. involve.me is an online form, quiz, and survey builder that focuses on interactive and engaging user experiences, which can lead to higher conversion rates than static Google Forms.
What is Involve.me?
It’s a platform for creating interactive content such as forms, surveys, calculators, quizzes, and funnels. Unlike the one-size-fits-all Google Form, involve.me offers advanced customization (you can match your brand’s look and feel), logic jumps and multi-page forms, integrations with marketing tools, and even payment collection. Essentially, it’s designed to produce forms and micro-experiences that feel like part of a conversation, rather than a dull list of questions.
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Why is involve.me Better for Embedding in Emails or Email Campaigns?.
Email Integration and Distribution
involve.me has built-in options to send your forms/surveys via email to your contacts. You can generate an email invitation for your involve.me project and send it directly through their platform. This includes features like customizing the email content, adding a header image, and even uploading contact lists to send in bulk.
This is more akin to an email marketing service combined with your form, giving you control over distribution without needing a separate tool. Additionally, involve.me integrates with popular email marketing and CRM tools, so you can trigger emails with survey links or follow-ups automatically.
Higher Conversion with Engaging Forms
involve.me’s core advantage is the engagement of its forms. You can create visually appealing, multi-step forms that hold people’s attention. Marketing data consistently shows that interactive, multi-step forms outperform static forms. For instance, multi-step forms have a conversion rate 86% higher than single-step forms (according to a HubSpot study).
The rationale is that breaking questions into smaller chunks and offering a more dynamic experience keeps users motivated to finish. Involve.me allows multi-page flows, logic that adapts questions based on answers, progress bars, etc., which can dramatically improve completion rates compared to a long Google Form on one page.
Also, interactive content in general has been shown to double conversion rates versus static content and increase engagement by over 50%.
By using involve.me to create an interactive quiz or survey that you share through email, you tap into these engagement benefits.
Mobile-Friendly and Frictionless
involve.me projects are optimized for mobile and various devices, which is key since so many users open emails on phones. If a user clicks an involve.me survey link from an email, the survey will be responsive and touch-friendly. You can even design the content to resemble a chat or conversational interface.
This is much more inviting than a Google Form embedded in an email that might not scroll or render properly on a phone. The result is likely higher response rates. (For context, email marketing stats show average open rates of around 26-27% in 2024, and when you get those opens, you want your survey or form to be as easy as possible to complete. Interactive elements can boost click-to-open rates by 73%, which suggests that making your email engaging directly leads to more people taking action.)
Rich Features (beyond Basic Forms)
With involve.me, you can do things that Google Forms can’t, which might increase your campaign’s effectiveness. For example, involve.me supports personalized outcomes (for quizzes or calculators), score calculations, and even embedding videos or images in the form. If you’re running a marketing campaign, you could create a fun quiz that people can partially take in-email and then finish on a landing page, leading to a tailored outcome or offer.
This level of interactivity not only gathers data but also can leave a stronger impression on the user, potentially improving brand loyalty (interactive content can boost brand loyalty by ~30% according to research). Moreover, involve.me provides analytics on drop-off and completion, so you get insights into how users interact with your form or survey at each step.
Final Words
Embedding a Google Form in an email sounds convenient, but in reality, it only works reliably for Gmail users, and even then, with limits. If you want better response rates, a smoother user experience, and forms that work perfectly across all devices and email clients, it’s best to switch to a more flexible solution.
That’s where involve.me comes in.
Create personalized, multi-step, high-converting forms, quizzes, and surveys that look great, load fast, and boost engagement. Whether you’re collecting leads, running a survey, or qualifying customers, involve.me makes it simple.
Try involve.me for free and build forms your audience will actually complete.
Google Forms too limiting?
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can You Embed a Google Form in an Email?
Yes, but it only works reliably in Gmail.
When you click Send → Email → Include form in email, Google will embed the form, but most email clients (Outlook, Apple Mail, Yahoo, etc.) block embedded forms for security reasons. Those users will only see a link or a broken layout.
2. Why Doesn’t My Google Form Work in Email?
Because most email clients disable interactive forms. Outlook, Apple Mail, and many others strip out scripts/HTML that Google Forms needs, causing the form to break or display blank.
It also won’t embed if your form includes file uploads, requires sign-in, or uses unsupported question types.
Solution: Tell recipients to click “Fill out in Google Forms” to open it in their browser, or avoid embedding and share the link instead.
3. How Do I Send a Google Form with Prefilled Answers?
Open your form → click the ⋮ menu → select Get pre-filled link.
Fill in the answers you want to pre-populate.
Click Get link to generate a unique URL.
Share that link, anyone who opens it will see the prefilled answers.
To send personalized links to many people, use a mail merge tool or an add-on. Only editors can create prefilled links.
