iCloud+ to Let iCloud Mail Users Personalize Their Email Domain Name

[petvas]

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple announced that iCloud is getting a premium subscription tier called "iCloud+," which includes tentpole privacy features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. Another feature included in iCloud+ that wasn't discussed in the keynote is the ability to create a custom email domain name.

Actually, I had posted this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401998480760057858

Interesting that most "analysts" and "experts" didn't see this. I guess they were too busy posting about the new 14" MBP... #fail

From Apple's iOS 15 features preview page, under the iCloud+ section:
In essence, what this means is that when iCloud+ goes live, Apple will allow users to change their iCloud Mail address completely. For instance, the email address jonnyappleseed@icloud.com could be changed to jonny@appleseed.com, foregoing the icloud domain reference entirely for a more personalized or businesslike look.

Additionally, Apple will allow users to invite family members to use the same domain name with their own iCloud Mail accounts, although it's not currently clear if family members will need to be part of Family Sharing for this to work.

For users of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other email providers, this sort of email address personalization has been available for a long time, so Apple could eventually prise some customers away from the competition with this move. It remains to be seen whether custom email domains for iCloud Mail will have certain limitations that rivals don't set, though.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401987130252042241

We've reached out to Apple for additional information. Either way, expect more details as we approach the launch of iCloud+ in the fall.

Article Link: iCloud+ to Let iCloud Mail Users Personalize Their Email Domain Name

 

[Stephen.R]

Actually, I had posted this on Twitter:

From where I'm sitting it looks like the tweet quoted by the article is about 40 minutes older than yours... Im confused what your complaint/claim is?

 

[rocknrollme]

Been waiting for this for AGES, so cool. This will allow users to simplify their workflow and rely on a single service for emails / calendar. My setup was kind of messy so far with my custom domain name and only allowed me to get IMAP access to my emails with 15 minutes delayed notifications.

 

[contacos]

does that mean my e-mail address could be changed to firstname@lastname.com ?

 

[Absolute Trainwreck]

Actually, I had posted this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401998480760057858

Interesting that most "analysts" and "experts" didn't see this. I guess they were too busy posting about the new 14" MBP... #fail

Most info like that comes from supply chain leaks and patents and stuff like that. iCloud Plus is a purely software solution so, much like new features in iOS or macOS (that aren’t leaked by early code), there’s just no way to know about those things unless someone at Apple directly leaks them.

 

[KarimLeVallois]

Uh oh, Fastmail's $50/yr from me is in danger now!

Haha, same!

 

[KarimLeVallois]

No doubt Fastmail has a lot more advanced options which iCloud will never offer (another one some people might be missing is that Fastmail can collect emails from external pop/imap servers).

So yes their advanced users won't even consider a transition to iCloud.

But I'd say a decent percentage of their users are paying mostly for the custom domain and would be happy to migrate to Apple of it is built-into their existing iCloud subscription and also lists them consolidate their email service with their other cloud services.

True, let’s see what Apple offers!

 

[SoundJudgment]

How is this different than simply going to any of the other 100s of .COM Name-Registrars and signing up with any of them? Now if they offered a .MAC or .IOS Domain Name to sell to people... that would be something unique.
Or .ME! Oh... wait.....

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Thinking about it - it's funny they didn't announce it at the keynote when for me it's bigger news than anything they did announce. I suppose it's just not something the 'average' person does.

 

[bob24]

Thinking about it - it's funny they didn't announce it at the keynote when for me it's bigger news than anything they did announce. I suppose it's just not something the 'average' person does.

Yes - it is definitely a niche thing, but for the people who are interested in that niche is is a massive change which some have been waiting for for years

 

[Digital Dude]

Ok, that’s cool and all but any word on why iOS iCloud Mail still won’t background sync mail read status?! It’s been half a decade now 🤯

Feet dragging is something Apple has become exceptionally good at.

 

[Ahmamies]

does that mean my e-mail address could be changed to firstname@lastname.com ?

Yes, assuming your lastname.com domain is available. Mine isn’t so I had to buy the domain my firstnamelast name.com. I am using that with outlook, but will move it to iCloud when this goes live.

 

[bob24]

How is this different than simply going to any of the other 100s of .COM Name-Registrars and signing up with any of them?

Currently of you register a domain with one of those, you can't have iCloud handle emails on that domain (best you can do is redirect emails to your iCloud address, and you can' even setup an iCloud alias to reply with your address).

 

[bilbo--baggins]

How is this different than simply going to any of the other 100s of .COM Name-Registrars and signing up with any of them?

To use a custom domain email addresses you need to register a domain name, set up web hosting using that domain name, have that web server point to your chosen email provider, and sign up with your chosen email provider. Until now Apple didn't support using their email service with custom domain names.

As someone mentioned earlier, it would be REALLY nice if Apple did all of these things, but from the announcement it's looks as though it may only be the last bit, same as Google Workspace and Fastmail.

 

[Ahmamies]

How is this different than simply going to any of the other 100s of .COM Name-Registrars and signing up with any of them? Now if they offered a .MAC or .IOS Domain Address to sell to people... that would be something unique.
Or .ME. Oh... wait.....

You still need to register the domain, then that can be used with your iCloud email.

 

[kycophpd]

does that mean my e-mail address could be changed to firstname@lastname.com ?

If you own the domain name, yes. Apple is not going to let you mask another domain owner by someone else. They can’t do that. So just like that example earlier about whitehouse.com: not possible. You will need to secure the domain now if available, or very quickly after Apple releases this new option.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

This is a good start, but they should increase the Inbox space from 5 GB for it to make sense. As of right now, 5 GB is not worth much unless you are just starting out with iCloud as a family and are in your honeymoon period with it.

It's only available if you get the iCloud Plus. Unless you were just speaking generally, in which I agree---5 GB is just too paltry today.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

If you own the domain name, yes. Apple is not going to let you mask another domain owner by someone else. They can’t do that. So just like that example earlier about whitehouse.com: not possible. You will need to secure the domain now if available, or very quickly after Apple releases this new option.

What if I don't own a domain name and end up with something like myfirstname@acme.com?

Let's further assume there is no acme.com domain name.

Let's then assume some company starts up called "acme," and they purchase acme.com.

Would my email domain name then get bumped in favor of the paying bloke?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Hayden_]

So I currently hayden@mydomain.com, would it be easy to switch over the iCloud using my own domain? If so, I would probably buy the 200GB or 2TB tier because I already pay £4 a month for OneDrive business.

 

[rforno]

Wait for Cupertino to start promoting how iCloud+ email brings the magic of immediate 'push' email notifications to your mobile devices as an exciting new feature that's 'only' available with iCloud+ services. (which it's not, of course)

 

[TriBruin]

They *might* have a partnership with a domain registrar to let you create the domain name, automatically set it up, and pay for it from within the iCloud ecosystem. I think Microsoft had that on outlook.com for some time but have stopped.

Hopefully they will allow us to use our own register and DNS servers as well. I used Google Domains for all my domains and don't want to move all my DNS entries.

I currently use AWS Workmail for my family email account, but have been thinking about moving to O365 (business). It will be interesting to see what Apple offers here. I will probably until this is released before I make any changes.

I also want to see how this works with people outside of my iCloud family. My parents have email addresses in our private domain, but are not part of my iCloud family. Unless we can all move our email addresses, it will be worthless.

 

[Stephen.R]

What if I don't own a domain name and end up with something like myfirstname@acme.com?

Then you don't 'have' that email address, so the rest of the hypotheticals are invalid.

 

[ELman]

It's interesting they are willing to try this. Microsoft has done this twice for personal accounts and has since abandon the service.

 

[dannys1]

This is a good start, but they should increase the Inbox space from 5 GB for it to make sense. As of right now, 5 GB is not worth much unless you are just starting out with iCloud as a family and are in your honeymoon period with it.

Well you can only get this with iCloud+ so it seems you'd be doing it with 50gb minimum anyway.

 

[TriBruin]

What if I don't own a domain name and end up with something like myfirstname@acme.com?

Let's further assume there is no acme.com domain name.

Let's then assume some company starts up called "acme," and they purchase acme.com.

Would my email domain name then get bumped in favor of the paying bloke?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can't do that. You will have to own the domain name (@acme.com) that you use in your email address.

As far as whether another company could take acme.com away from you. It depends. This was very prevalent in the early years of the web. Domain squatters would scope up the domain names of companies that were slow to catch on. In some cases, these domain squatters would sell the domain name for a handy profit. In other cases, the company sued for trademark violation and took control.