Django provides a built-in function named send_mail to simplify the process of sending email messages without having to directly deal with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). This guide will walk you through the steps of setting up and using send_mail in your Django application.

• Django installed
• A Gmail account (or any other email service provider)

To send an email using Django's send_mail function, you can write a view in your Django app. Here's a simple example:

from django.core.mail import send_mail
from django.http import HttpResponse

def send_email_view(request):
    send_mail(
        'Subject here',       # Subject of the email
        'Here is the message.',  # Message of the email
        '[email protected]',   # Sender's email address
        ['[email protected]'],   # List of recipient(s)
        fail_silently=False,  # Whether to raise an exception if sending fails
    )
    return HttpResponse('Email sent successfully!')

1. SMTP Client: When you use Gmail to send an email using send_mail, you are acting as the SMTP client. You compose the email, specify the recipient's email address, subject, and content, and then click the "Send" button.

2. SMTP Server: Gmail's servers act as the SMTP servers that handle the outgoing email transmission. Gmail's servers validate the sender's credentials, process the email message, route it to the appropriate destination server, and handle any necessary relays or retries.

3. Recipient's Server: The recipient's email server receives the incoming email message from Gmail's SMTP servers and delivers it to the recipient's mailbox. The recipient's server performs various checks and processes to ensure the email is legitimate and not spam, and then delivers it to the recipient's inbox.

SMTP is a fundamental protocol for email communication on the internet. It provides a standardized way for email clients and servers to send and receive email messages, making it easier to handle email communications in your Django applications.