How to Keep Track of Emails in Google Forms?

Why do Google Forms track email?

Tracking email simply means collecting the email of the respondents. Google Forms does not collect emails by default.

However, you can change this according to the requirements of your form.

For example, if your form is about a job application then collecting email is very necessary. For similar purposes, you may make your Google Form collect emails from respondents. 

How to Keep Track of Emails in Google Forms

Google Forms do not track emails by default. However, you can change this in form settings. Before we demonstrate how to do that, we will need to create a Google Form. Let’s create our form first. 

Create a Google Form

You can create a Google Form by going to Google Form’s website. Here, I have created the hypertext for Google Forms website. 

Now as you can see, there are buttons that say “Go to forms”. There are two of them, click on either one of them to go to the Forms to create a Google Form.

Now on this screen, you can see your forms that you’ve made already. Or you can select from one of the templates provided by Google Forms to make a new form. There are some very nice templates. You can select one of the provided templates and edit it to your liking. 

However, we will be starting with a completely new form and will make it from the blank.
Click on “Blank” as:

Here is the blank body of our new form.

Now, let’s finalize the form by adding title, descriptions, some questions etc. Anything that form needs. Here is how our customized form looks like:

Now, our form is ready. Let’s go ahead and demonstrate how we can make our Google Form track emails.

Make the Google Form collect Email address

As we have mentioned before, Google Forms do not collect email addresses of the respondents by default. We can change this through the form settings.
Let’s have a look at the form settings first.
Click “Settings” displayed on top middle of the form as:

Here you can see all the settings about the form. You can edit all settings of the form that includes making your form a quiz, responses, how the form is presented, and form defaults as well.

In “Responses” settings, we can set our Google Form to collect emails. Click on the “Responses” drop-down to see all settings about responses.

Here are all the settings about form responses. 

There are different settings. You can limit the form to one response but that requires sign in, you can send a copy of response to the responders, and also allow response editing. Any form owner may cater to these as per requirements.
Here, you can also see the “Collect Email addresses” setting as shown below:

As you can see, “Collect email addresses” setting is currently set to “Do not collect”.
Let’s change that, look into our options, click on drop-down button next to “Do not collect” as:

Now we can see our options.
We have three options,
1. Do no Collect (Default Option)
2. Verified
3. Responder Input

Before we choose our option, what does these options mean?
1. Do not Collect
That’s pretty simple. It simply means that form will not collect any email addresses.
2. Verified
Verified means that the form will collect the email address in such a way that responders need to be signed in to their google account and the form will collect that email.
3. Responder input
Responder input means that responder needs to manually input the email. It will be part of the response

Now that we know what all our options mean, the Verified option is the most optimal for our scenario, so let’s select it. 

Preview the Google Form

Now our Google Form collects emails of the responders. Let’s have a look at the preview of the form to see how that actually works.
Click on “Preview” button on the top right corner as:

Now as you see in the preview, there is a checkbox question that asks for your consent to have your email included with the response.

This way, our Google Form is tracking emails now. 

Keep track of emails of respondents

Now, with each response, the email of the responder is collected in the Response section of the form. You may use those emails to contact the respondents for any further information or feedback.

Things To Remember

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a Google Form collect and track emails by default?

Google Form does not collect emails for the form owner by default. If form owners would like to keep a track of emails of the respondents, they can enable the setting for collecting emails.

Can Turning Off Autosave in Google Form disturbs Keeping Track of Emails?

Turning off autosave option in google form may disrupt keeping track of emails. Without autosave, data entered into the form may not be saved if the respondent closes the page or loses internet connection. This could result in missing important information or delays in receiving submissions via email. Therefore, it is advisable to keep the autosave feature enabled for a seamless experience.

Can we ask the respondents to enter their email manually in Google Form?

Yes, a Google Form owner may ask a question that asks the respondents to enter their emails or they may enable the settings for taking Responder Input on collecting emails.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the form owners may choose to collect emails of their responders for the sake of record keeping and contacting their respondents in the future. In this article, we discussed how to keep track of emails in Google Forms along with the following:

• Create a Google Form
• Make the Google Form collect Email address
• Preview the Google Form
• Keep track of emails of respondents

Thanks for reading!