Up until very recently, setting up a Gmail account meant that you’d be stuck with the selected email address. Google did not offer any option to change the address. In fact, the only option available was to create an entirely new account to pick a new email address.
This meant that you would lose access to preferences, emails, data and everything else associated with the account.
This seems to be changing, as Google revealed on a support page that address changing is coming to Gmail.
However, the news needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The help page is in Hindi only, which could mean that Google is making the change exclusive to a subset of users.
There, Google writes the following (auto-translated):
Changing the email address of your Google account
Your Google account email address is the address you use, lets you sign in to Google’s services. This email address lets you and others identify your account. If you prefer, your Google account’s email address whose last part is gmail.com can be changed. It could be replaced with a new email address with gmail.com last.
In other words, Google is rolling out a change that lets users change their Gmail address.
What about the old address then, you may ask? It is retained as well to avoid that someone else snags it up and gains access to your emails.
Google reveals that the process can be used once every 12 months at the most. Once a new email has been set, it, or the old, can be used to sign in to Google services.
When is it coming? The functionality is rolling out gradually, as usual. If this is indeed rolling out worldwide, expect weeks or even months before you see the functionality in your account.
Closing Words
The new process makes it easier to switch to a new email address by Gmail. Since you retain access to the old email, you effectively create a second account that you may use from that moment on, without losing access to the first.
Data seems to be shared though, so that your preferences and data are retained, regardless of the account that you use to sign-in.
Now You: do you have and use a Gmail account? Would you change its address name to a new one, if the feature lands? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
I avoid all Google services so of course no Gmail Account.
Would I change my Google account address name to a new one, if the feature lands? Yes, if the address had been hacked. By the way I see no other reason.
“Since you retain access to the old email, you effectively create a second account that you may use from that moment on, without losing access to the first.”
Without loosing access to the first: access for myself only or for anyone? Because if I continue to receive Spam on the first account I don’t really see the point…
It’ s a bit unclear how Google plans to implement the ability to change an address; I’ve used a couple of “masks” with Firefox Relay, but I don’t sense that’s what Google is planning. Firefox Relay works fine for now.
I’ve got several.
I can’t understand why anyone would want to add a second vector of attack to their email?
The way you say they stay connected would do just that.
I don’t have a Google a/c even though I have an Android phone. I just use my youtube account although it’s a pain in the posterior to use because I get bombarded with Google captchas when I try to use it to login to sites like TrustPilot. But that’s a minor problem since I just use my Apple ID instead.
To get around the problem of logging out of youtube which would log me out of my phone if I did it on my Windows machines, I have Firefox configured to delete cache and cookies when I close it which deletes the yt cookie and logs me out that way while still retaining access to Android updates on my phone.
As for email, I have a premium (paid for) a/c at https://tuta.com/ which is a German email outfit which besides webmail also includes an Android app.
There is an English version of the Google web page:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/19870?hl=en