The Hide My Email Feature was introduced in iOS15 allowing you to assign randomly generated email addresses that automatically forward any communications to your real email account.
We use our email address for many things, so you’ll want to make sure that you’re implementing the best practices when it comes to security.
It’s pretty easy to set up, and you can use it on your iPhone and iPad instead of your actual email address. There are two catches. First, you need to have an iPhone that supports iOS 15, meaning iPhone 6s or newer. Second, you have to be a paying subscriber to iCloud+, which starts at $1 a month and gives you 50GB of storage. Most people have upgraded their storage due to the large amounts of photos we store in iCloud.
How Create and Set up a Hide My Email Address
- Open Settings app
- Select your name at the top
- Tap iCloud
- Select Hide My Email
- Tap Create New Address
Fill out the form, and once created, it will forward emails to the email address associated with your Apple ID.
If you want to use a different address, follow the steps above and, once you select Hide My Email, scroll to the bottom of the page and choose the Forward To option.
How To Use Hide My Email in the Mail app
You can use this feature while composing a new message.
- Open Mail
- Hit Compose to create a new email. It looks like a pencil in a square.
- Tap the Cc/Ccc from field and then the From field
- Choose Hide My Email
- Type out your email.
- The mail app will automatically generate a random forwarding email when you enter a recipient in the To: field.
- Tap Send
The Hide My Email address will be saved in the settings with the recipient as the label. Whenever you email that individual or organization in the future, tap Hide My Email again, and the system will pull in what you used previously.
Note: Hide My Email is only supported when there is a single recipient.
How to See Your Addresses and Work With Them
- Open Settings
- Tap your name at the top
- Select iCloud
- Choose Hide My Email
The key part of the feature is at the bottom of the page. It’s the Forward To option. This is the only way to access and make changes to this email address.
Tap on Forward To, and after a few moments, you’ll see a list of the other real email addresses you use. Select the one you want to use to change your email address, then tap Done.
If you need to add an email address, tap on Reachable at, select edit and choose Add Email or Phone number. These are the addresses where you can be reached via FaceTime, iMessage and more.
How To Turn Off Hide My Email Address
This is super easy to turn off on a per-address basis. So, if, for some reason, you no longer want a company or person to be able to reach you, they’re sending too many emails, or there’s a data breach, you can cut off that email
- Open Settings
- Tap your name at the top
- Choose iCloud
- Tap Hide My Email
- Select the randomly generated email that you wish to remove
- Tap Deactivate email address
- Confirm the Deactivation
You will no longer receive forwarded emails from that address.
Changed Your Mind About Deactivating an Address
Follow the steps above, and when you tap on Hide My email, scroll below the Forward To option, and you’ll see the list of Inactive Addresses.
Tap the Address you’ve deactivated. Now choose Reactivate Address, and the address will be live again.
If you want to get rid of this address, tap Delete Address and delete again to confirm.
Conclusion
Don’t let this long-winded explanation keep you from using Hide My Email. It takes much longer to explain than set up. This is because you have so many options.
Once you have it set up, you’ll use it with ease.
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