iCloud+'s New Custom Email Domain Feature Now Available in Beta

[MacRumors]

Starting with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, users with a paid iCloud+ storage plan can personalize their iCloud email address with a custom domain name, such as johnny@appleseed.com, and the feature is now available in beta.

iCloud+ subscribers interested in setting up a custom email domain can visit the beta.icloud.com website, select "Account Settings" under their name, and select "Manage" under "Custom Email Domain." Users can send and receive email with up to five custom domains, while family members can each have up to three email addresses per domain.

After entering a custom domain on the iCloud website, users can add email addresses that they currently use with the domain. Users can also create new email addresses after they have finished setting up the domain with iCloud, according to Apple. Note that any custom email addresses must not be in use with another Apple ID.

For those who missed the announcement back at WWDC in June, iCloud+ is Apple's new branding for paid iCloud storage combined with new features like iCloud Private Relay and Hide My Email. iCloud+ features are included with iCloud storage plans at no additional cost, with prices remaining set at $0.99 per month for 50GB of storage, $2.99 per month for 200GB of storage, or $9.99 per month for 2TB of storage in the United States.

The ability to use a custom email address for iCloud is not to be confused with Hide My Email, a separate iCloud+ feature that allows users to create unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inbox so they can send and receive email without having to share their real email address.

(Thanks, Tommaso Armstrong!)

Article Link: iCloud+'s New Custom Email Domain Feature Now Available in Beta

 

[austinuser]

ok, does anyone have info on moving from a custom domain on google (Google Workspace) it's now called to icloud+?

 

[nattK]

It's still very buggy. The instructions online and the one sent to your email are inconsistent so you'd have to figure out which works through trial and error.

 

[FNH15]

Can’t add “Mac.com,” unfortunately. Damn shame - I missed the cutoff for one of those email addresses by a few months back in ’08...

 

[Ruggy]

Looks like you already have to own the domain which is a bit of a pain as it's a minefield.
They look like they are cheap and easy but at each step you end up paying a bit more: registration, anti spam, database ad-guard etc etc until you realise you are actually paying quite a lot and when you come to renew the prices can turn out to be horrendous because in fact they were all special introductory prices.

I was rather hoping they were going to supply them and make the whole process transparent and easy.
Not so useful then to most private customers.

 

[DotCom2]

I am hoping this is going to be easy to do for a novice. I parked two new domains when I heard about this but that is about as far as my knowledge on this stuff goes! 🤔🤔

 

[thejadedmonkey]

So if I own jadedmonkey.com, I could add an email me@jadedmonkey.com and it would work without me having to pay any extra for hosting? Or is this purely a mail forwarding and I still have to find a place to host my email?

Or is this just for people who want to mask an address, e.g. jadedmonkey@yahoo.com?

Edit: Looks like it's the former, where Apple will take over hosting the email account for you. Unfortunately all of the support links are still a work in progress.

 

[Stella]

So if I own jadedmonkey.com, I could add an email me@jadedmonkey.com and it would work without me having to pay any extra for hosting? Or is this purely a mail forwarding and I still have to find a place to host my email?

Or is this just for people who want to mask an address, e.g. jadedmonkey@yahoo.com?

If it's just for email, there is no hosting.

iCloud will host your email.

 

[jclardy]

I'm surprised they went through the effort of building this, I feel the intersection of people that know how to update DNS records on a domain and the people that want to use iCloud for email is extremely small.

I'd consider it if it wasn't so heavily tied into the Apple ID system - you can't add anyone to your domain email outside of your iCloud "family".

 

[Zadigre]

I tried it... still waiting for the verification email after more than 30 minutes
my domain name is on google domains and email forward is configured to send to my iCloud.com email address. Is Apple blocking verification emails that are sent to iCloud.com?

 

[TonyC28]

I don't know why I'm so confused by this. So, I have my iCloud email that I've used for years. Now, I can create an alias for that which can be anything I want, but not something already in use by someone else in the world, and then this new alias email will route through my original iCloud email account?

 

[georgeperez]

Looks like you already have to own the domain which is a bit of a pain as it's a minefield.
They look like they are cheap and easy but at each step you end up paying a bit more: registration, anti spam, database ad-guard etc etc until you realise you are actually paying quite a lot and when you come to renew the prices can turn out to be horrendous because in fact they were all special introductory prices.

I was rather hoping they were going to supply them and make the whole process transparent and easy.
Not so useful then to most private customers.

Use Hover. Seems like you're dealing with a terrible registrar.

 

[KarimLeVallois]

I set this up quickly, but couldn't get into the email part of beta.icloud.com to see if I can add aliases to it. Without this, I'll be sticking to Fastmail, so quickly reverted my changes.

 

[Zadigre]

I don't know why I'm so confused by this. So, I have my iCloud email that I've used for years. Now, I can create an alias for that which can be anything I want, but not something already in use by someone else in the world, and then this new alias email will route through my original iCloud email account?

you buy your own domain name somewhere. lets say tonyc28.com.
you host some email account with this domain.
you can now add this domain name in your iCloud account and received/send email with this domain name. but only you and your family (sharing) will be able to use this domain name.

 

[5425642]

Wait do I understand it correctly that you can’t do it if your custom email is your apple is?
For everyone that has there domain I guess that they have signed up there Apple ID with that email.

I have…

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I'm surprised they went through the effort of building this, I feel the intersection of people that know how to update DNS records on a domain and the people that want to use iCloud for email is extremely small.

I'd consider it if it wasn't so heavily tied into the Apple ID system - you can't add anyone to your domain email outside of your iCloud "family".

I agree. However, the current state of this is so non-intuitive that if Apple can manage this it's a great win for the handful of people who want this.

And, it supports vendor lock-in.

If you already pay for storage it's a free upgrade that costs Apple nothing, and costs you a lot to move away from.

 

[PhireWare]

It's surprising how many people don't understand custom domain email hosting. Do you own your own domain name and need a place to host email that isn't Google Apps, Microsoft 365 or a personal server? Then this iCloud+ feature is for you.

This is certainly not a feature for everyone and it's actually a fairly "advanced" consumer feature by Apple standards

 

[nattK]

Can’t add “Mac.com,” unfortunately. Damn shame - I missed the cutoff for one of those email addresses by a few months back in ’08...

Custom domains only work with a domain you own (i.e. a domain you obtained through GoDaddy, NameCheap, Google Domains, etc). You can't add "Mac.com" because Apple owns that domain.

 

[TonyC28]

you buy your own domain name somewhere. lets say tonyc28.com.
you host some email account with this domain.
you can now add this domain name in your iCloud account and received/send email with this domain name. but only you and your family (sharing) will be able to use this domain name.

Oh. So isn't that just email forwarding?

 

[FNH15]

Custom domains only work with a domain you own (i.e. a domain you obtained through GoDaddy, NameCheap, Google Domains, etc). You can't add "Mac.com" because Apple owns that domain.

Ah. Makes sense then.

 

[MrMichaelJames]

I'm so confused. I own a specific domain, I already have email addresses on this domain setup to forward to my gmail accounts. How is this any different?

 

[Zadigre]

Oh. So isn't that just email forwarding?

no. iCloud email will receive directly. no forwarding involved.

 

[TonyC28]

no. iCloud email will receive directly. no forwarding involved.

Oh. I'm a pretty casual email user so I guess this doesn't apply to me. I definitely don't understand this at all so forgive this question if it's dumb, but what is the problem this is solving?

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Oh. I'm a pretty casual email user so I guess this doesn't apply to me. I definitely don't understand this at all so forgive this question if it's dumb, but what is the problem this is solving?

I pay for iCloud and I pay to host a separate email address. I could potentially reduce my recurring costs by merging it all together.

 

[Madhatter32]

It's about time Apple enabled this feature. It's not a novel capability and anyone with a business account knows that it is an important feature. I think this may help Apple grow its email user base substantially.