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

[profets]

Exactly why I use Fastmail. AFAIK, it's the only email service that supports iOS Mail push notifications properly.

It's actually quite magical, in fact. It's so fast that as soon as I read a message on my MacBook or iPad, I can usually see the notifications disappear from my Lock Screen on my iPhone sitting beside me.

Honestly I agree. I had been trying so many services and nothing came even close. I remember being amazed at how it somehow managed to check every box. I was quite happy too when we got coloured flags a few years back in the iOS update and they synced properly to macOS Mail.

I do really hope Apple brings this to iCloud Mail. I've always been perplexed that it hasn't been there since the beginning, but then again I come from a pre-iPhone era when Blackberries roamed the earth. I feel like most people don't care about these things nearly as much (as evidenced by the number of people I know who have a four-digit number persistently hovering over their Mail icon 😏).

100%.

 

[jhollington]

Honestly I agree. I had been trying so many services and nothing came even close. I remember being amazed at how it somehow managed to check every box. I was quite happy too when we got coloured flags a few years back in the iOS update and they synced properly to macOS Mail.

Yup, and if you want to try a really cool trick, you can actually craft custom sieve rules in Fastmail that will set the coloured flags for you on inbound email messages.

Just use something like this in a Sieve block...

setflag "\\Flagged";
addflag ["$MailFlagBit0","$MailFlagBit1"];

...with the $MailFlagBit entries combined to represent the colour combinations, as follows:

Red: none
Orange: $MailFlagBit0
Yellow: $MailFlagBit1
Green: $MailFlagBit0,$MailFlagBit1
Blue: $MailFlagBit2
Purple: $MailFlagBit0,$MailFlagBit2
Grey: $MailFlagBit1,$MailFlagBit2

So, the above code example would set the green flag on inbound items that matched whatever rule you wrapped around it.

 

[posguy99]

Awesome. Another subscription product.

This is the way domains have always worked. What do you think is different?

 

[Robert.Walter]

Apple needs to allow folks to change their main iCloud account if necessary.

I made the mistake of using the same string of characters before the @ as in my yahoo account. Since yahoo breached, losing every email address, any clever spammer who swaps out yahoo for icloud before the dot com will be able to reach me.

I’d like the opportunity to use this new iCloud+ feature but am just concerned about the day the clever spammer negates my efforts to implement apples unlimited random private relay addresses.

 

[JMStearnsX2]

Good to hear. You notice the same vice versa as well?

For ex, what would drive me nuts was working at my Mac or iPad, dealing with email, and then picking up my phone and seeing all the email on the lock screen as new unread items still.

I'll have to remember to check next time an email comes through, although I have lock screen & banner notifications turned off on my phone, too many emails from work a day.

 

[AppliedMicro]

I do have a suspicious feeling that this will be just more aliases so you can send email from icloud as your domain email xyz@xyz.com

I doubt it. As email providers are increasingly fighting spam, the likelihood of endin up in a spam filter will only increase without proper setup of DMARC and/or SPF.

Also, quoting Apple's announcement...

"Personalize your iCloud Mail address with a custom domain name, and invite family members to use the same domain with their iCloud Mail accounts."

...makes me think that this (the invite functionality) is geared towards non-technical users.
Who won't be setting up any forwarding options in their email address.
Also, merely using aliases for sending wouldn't really require an invite, would it?

To me, this sounds like Apple will provide the mail server and have MX records pointing to them. Though I believe the service will not be aimed at corporate users but more a family type of setting. And also be limited ("dumbed down") in functionality, compared to other mail hosters.

• External domain registrations? Seems kind of likely to me. I doubt that Apple will be willing to deal with domain registrations themselves and the processes, support questions and possible negative publicity involved ("I lost my domain name due to Apple...").
• Mail forwarding and/or aliases? Maybe, maybe not. Not a given.
• Classic IMAP/POP account that isn't tied to an Apple ID? Can't imagine it. I think Apple ID credentials (with 2-factor authentication) are supposed to become a "single sign-on" to iCloud, App Store - and your personal email address.

 

[jhollington]

I doubt it. As email providers are increasingly fighting spam, the likelihood of endin up in a spam filter will only increase without proper setup of DMARC and/or SPF.

Exactly. I suspect this is partly why Apple gave up on allowing for alternative email addresses years ago. Sure, you can still forward into iCloud — they can't really prevent that — but they don't want to encourage people to use a system that's more likely to break and result in unreliable email delivery.

...makes me think that this (the invite functionality) is geared towards non-technical users.
Who won't be setting up any forwarding options in their email address.

Also my thoughts exactly. I suspect the whole thing is going to be geared toward non-technical users, with Apple someone handling the custom domain registration. It would be very un-Apple-like for them to try to explain to people how to register a domain and edit MX records — not to mention the tons of room for mistakes to be made.

Also, merely using aliases for sending wouldn't really require an invite, would it?

No, not at all, since there's no way that any sane email provider would allow aliases to be setup without validating the original account, which is all the authorization they'd need that the use of the domain is authorized.

More to the point, however, simply allowing aliases isn't really "custom domains" for all but the most tech-savvy users — most of whom wouldn't bother with it in that case. Almost nobody is going to already have a custom domain set up at another email provider that they would want to forward to iCloud, and setting up a new custom domain would require it to be hosted somewhere else, with an equivalent mail forwarding service.

If Apple was simply allowing aliases, they'd say so. "A custom email domain" is totally different from an alias, which could just as easily be used to forward gmail/outlook/hotmail/yahoo mail into iCloud — which is what most people would end up doing with mere third-party aliases.

 

[AppliedMicro]

with Apple someone handling the custom domain registration. It would be very un-Apple-like for them to try to explain to people how to register a domain and edit MX records

This is the one thing I don't believe in.
Admittedly, setting DNS records isn't easy for the non-tech savvy.

But acting as a registrar themselves will open up Pandora's box:

• Supporting customers with auth codes to transfer to/from other other registrars
• Domain registration policies and abuse
• Domain name dispute resolution (think... trademarks)
• Governments trying to take down domains for abuse, crimes, political dissidentism...
• ...or worse, not take them down but taking them over?

Think: Being given the choice of shutting down that or handing over a domain name for purported internet crime committed in world's-most-populous-consumer-market - or face repercussions from said country's government? Sure, you don't need your own domain name to run that risk. But the domain name adds a whole other level to it. One high-profile misstepp, and we'll likely be reading about it in the New York Times. I don't think that's a rabbit hole they want to go down on.

With external registrations, they can at least point to "please contact your domain registrar to point your MX records to our servers X and Y (that's all you need to do - but don't ask us how to do it!)".

Besides, it acting as their own registrar, they would probably to be limited to a few select generic domains (.com/.net/.org) where many customers will prefer local domain names.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I'm going to keep an eye on this. I used MobileMe & iCloud Mail for years before ditching it.

I had severe issues with spam. I was fortunate enough, back in 2008, to register MyFirstName@me.com, but over time it got spammed to oblivion despite me being very careful with whom I gave my address.

I later found that Apple's spam filtering system would 'score' each e-mail as spam (as shown in the headers) but would then still deliver it to my Inbox, despite having Junk Mail filtering turned on. Many of the servers sending spam were on blacklists but, again, Apple accepted mail from them. I even had several converations with people in Cupertino about it but with no real resolution.

If Apple have sorted out their spam filtering and provide one particular feature I'm looking for I may revert from using FastMail. The one feature is a 'catch-all' mailbox. I currently have my e-mail so that alias@mydomain.com is delivered to my Inbox. I use a different 'alias' for each website I sign up for. If any one particular alias starts receiving spam, I know exactly who leaked my address and can add a mail filter for that alias. That would be the killer feature, for me.

This is exactly my experience. My way to customize aliases at the moment is to break my incoming only mail traffic down into segments: fin, med, biz, for financial accounts, as well as medical and business.

Each mail address w/in a segment gets a suffix +001, +002, etc., each mapped to a list. It’s cumbersome as hell but I don’t know a better way to know of who might have breached or sold addresses, etc.

Also agree that the little I used dot mac or iCloud address I was dissatisfied with the spam filtering. Sometimes it just seems like Apple is setting up half completed demo functions or cripples them hoping to drive users to move onto a fully featured 3rd party app (where maybe they can get their 30%.)

Since 2015 or so I’ve sent Apple emails every few years, also requests thru developer feedback portal, saying “if you’re serious about privacy you need to 1) build an apple vpn into safari and apps, and 2) allow more than a few alias email addresses under iCloud mail. Since a couple of years I’ve similarly asked that we get randomized alias email addresses like sign in w Apple has.

I very glad to see these coming improvements but the key is that Apple doesn’t go half hog again.

I would like Apple to have the opportunity to tie random addresses to a certain domain so that emails not coming from that domain go straight to junk (perhaps also with a notice).

 

[jhollington]

Acting as a registrar themselves will open up many more other rabbit holes.
- Supporting customers with auth codes to transfer to/from other other registrars.
- Domain registration policies.
- Domain name dispute resolution (think... trademarks)

Besides, it would probably need to be limited to a few select generic domains (.com/.net/.org) where many customers will prefer local domain names.

I doubt Apple would act as an actual registrar — I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I don't think it's likely. However, Apple could easily partner with somebody to make the process as seamless as possible. That's what Microsoft did for Outlook.com with GoDaddy. Good idea, bad choice of partner 😏

Apple could also handle the DNS hosting, which would allow them to guarantee reliable MX (and SPF/DKIM/DMARC/etc records) without nearly as many pitfalls. Not expecting they'll do this either, but I think it's slightly more likely than seen them become an actual registrar. Only slightly though.

Personally, I'm expecting they'll go the full partnership route. They've been much more willing to do that in recent years in many other areas, and conceptually it wouldn't be unlike how HomeKit Secure Routers work — the code is managed and supported by Eero and Linksys, but there's no way they didn't work very closely with Apple to allow such turnkey HomeKit integration. This could be as simple as having a few key registrar/DNS providers offering "one-click" iCloud configuration options.

I just can't see them leaving iCloud users to figure this out for themselves. It seems to go against the whole philosophy of iCloud Mail, which is already arguably populated mostly by (and for) non-tech-savvy users. After all, anybody who wants a custom domain moved away years ago. While this would draw a few of these people back, I don't think that's Apple's primary motivation for doing this.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

This is the way domains have always worked. What do you think is different?

Hi, I know nothing about domain names and made that pretty clear to the other commenters making fun of me for it, but I'm thankful to have learned something.

Appreciate your super insightful comment as well. Thanks for popping by.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

Domains have always been "a subscription", going back to the very first .com domains, and it makes sense, as it's a service with continuing costs (literally "answering the phone" the 17 billion times a browser or email client or whatever says, "what's the IP address of acme.com"? - that doesn't just happen by magic). It's a subscription in the same way that electricity is (which doesn't just magically come out of the wall outlet).

(Sorry, I spent decades helping run a network with many tens of thousands of machines, providing all the networking services, and having lots of people not understand that it didn't just happen by magic, and the reason that it nearly always Just Worked was because of a bunch of people working very hard to keep it that way.)

Hi, I made it pretty clear to the other people who gave me a ton of crap for what I said that I know nothing about domain names and was confused about this product.

As I advised another commenter, I am thankful to have learned something, however.

Thank you for your very helpful remark and insight.

 

[Robert.Walter]

You would need your own domain. And the mail pointers set to apples servers.

What’s the benefit of this? Is it in combination with aliases? Maybe Apple doing spam filtering?

 

[Robert.Walter]

That is really great. I managed to snag <my four letter family name>.family when the previous registrant let it lapse, 2 years ago. Absolutely will be setting this up for my parents and I guess probably the extended family on my dad's side of the family too. Of course, it's already a hassle to get them to understand that `@me.com` and `@iCloud.com` are the same thing for their email, so this may confuse that even more!

LoL don’t tell me that they also specify capital letters in the email, like Bob.Wall@…. Capital B! Lower o, lower b, capital W, etc. haha.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Hi, I made it pretty clear to the other people who gave me a ton of crap for what I said that I know nothing about domain names and was confused about this product.

As I advised another commenter, I am thankful to have learned something, however.

Thank you for your very helpful remark and insight.

Ignore comments like that. Your inquiry was fair and reasonable. Comment: I bet people on that big network are happy not to have that guy around reminding them how ignorant they are.

 

[bob24]

Personally, I'm expecting they'll go the full partnership route. They've been much more willing to do that in recent years in many other areas, and conceptually it wouldn't be unlike how HomeKit Secure Routers work — the code is managed and supported by Eero and Linksys, but there's no way they didn't work very closely with Apple to allow such turnkey HomeKit integration. This could be as simple as having a few key registrar/DNS providers offering "one-click" iCloud configuration options.

I think it is rather likely, but if they do that I hope they will also leave an option for users to manage their own domain.

If the domain is managed by Apple, I would be concerned about them restricting DNS settings and not letting me do anything I like with regards to DNS entries unrelated to email. Plus TBH I am simply happy with my current registrar and don't particularly want to move my domain to one which is imposed by Apple.

 

[Stephen.R]

I think it is rather likely, but if they do that I hope they will also leave an option for users to manage their own domain.

If the domain is managed by Apple, I would be concerned about them restricting DNS settings and not letting me do anything I like with regards to DNS entries unrelated to email. Plus TBH I am simply happy with my current registrar and don't particularly want to move my domain to one which is imposed by Apple.

It also would potentially limit which TLD's could be used.

Most existing registrars/DNS Hosts have 'templates' to pre-set common services that need DNS entries; I'd expect this to work pretty similarly.

The overlap of people who understand the concept enough to want their own custom domain, but also understand too little to be able to add a couple of MX records, and a DKIM text record in their registrar's control panel is going to be pretty slim.

 

[slyronit]

I am pretty sure they would let you use your own domain that you already have registered with some other agency and just point the MX/SPF/DKIM records towards apple.

I am also pretty sure it won't be a system advanced enough to have you change your NS to point to apple and let apple manage your DNS records.

They may also have a partnership with some domain registrar to purchase a domain from but this would be optional.

 

[bob24]

It also would potentially limit which TLD's could be used.

Most existing registrars/DNS Hosts have 'templates' to pre-set common services that need DNS entries; I'd expect this to work pretty similarly.

The overlap of people who understand the concept enough to want their own custom domain, but also understand too little to be able to add a couple of MX records, and a DKIM text record in their registrar's control panel is going to be pretty slim.

What I would be afraid of if the management of the domain is fully delegated to Apple is that DNS could be restricted only to the MX and other records they need to run the iCloud email service. With not even a possibility to create a couple of basic A and CNAME records through a web interface (let alone having full control over the DNS records configuration).

Anyway we shall see

 

[slyronit]

What I would be afraid of if the management of the domain is fully delegated to Apple is that DNS could be restricted only to the MX and other records they need to run the iCloud email service. With not even a possibility to create a couple of basic A and CNAME records through a web interface (let alone having full control over the DNS records configuration).

Anyway we shall see

This won't happen. It will be more work for them if you have them manage your entire DNS which doesn't make sense for a basic service like email. I think you will keep your current NS and just point MX/SPF/DKIM records towards apple and be done with.

M365 provides both options : You can either point only MX/SPF/DKIM records towards them or change your NS to MS NS servers and let them manage all your DNS settings.

 

[jhollington]

I think it is rather likely, but if they do that I hope they will also leave an option for users to manage their own domain.

Agreed. This is the part I'm more concerned about.

Apple being Apple might try to make the process so easy that it's impossible to even assign a secondary domain unless you go through a specific registration partner. Of course, it won't be hard to figure out where you need to point the MX records yourself, but what's going to be trickier is getting iCloud to accept mail for the domain, since that's a configuration that's required on Apple's side.

 

[jhollington]

The overlap of people who understand the concept enough to want their own custom domain, but also understand too little to be able to add a couple of MX records, and a DKIM text record in their registrar's control panel is going to be pretty slim.

I don't think that's an entirely fair statement.

While that may be true right now, it's only because owning a custom domain is such a relatively complicated process for the average user — we only have to read other responses in this thread to see how many people have absolutely no idea how the domain name system works in the first place.

However, Apple offering this on iCloud Mail is likely going to make it accessible to a lot more people. In the same way people get vanity license plates on their cars, the idea of a "vanity" domain is going to become very appealing if users can pay a small fee and set it up in as few clicks as possible.

Saying that there's little overlap would be like saying back in 2007 that the number of people who want a smartphone but also understand how to use all of the advanced features on a Blackberry or Symbian devices is pretty slim. Of course, a lot of people did say that back then, but Apple clearly proved how wrong they were.

Plus, unless Apple seriously increases the capabilities of iCloud+ Mail to rival what's offered by others, there's not going to be much uptake on this from more tech-savvy users anyway. Those who want a custom domain and also understand how to add a couple of MX records probably demand more from their email service than iCloud Mail offers right now — much like Blackberry and other smartphone users demanded much more from their devices than the original iPhone offered.

In other words if iCloud+ Mail doesn't do anything more than it does right now except add support for custom domains, it's really going to be little more than a novelty for the casual email user. Just like the original iPhone, however, if Apple does that right, it's going to make custom email domains accessible to a whole new world of people who found the whole idea too complicated and scary — and perhaps didn't even know it was possible.

 

[Stephen.R]

While that may be true right now, it's only because owning a custom domain is such a relatively complicated process for the average user — we only have to read other responses in this thread to see how many people have absolutely no idea how the domain name system works in the first place.

Lots of people don't know how it works. Sure, that's obvious, even without reading this thread.


What I don't take away from this thread is that all of a sudden a significant portion of the iCloud using community is going to want a custom domain, just because they can.


Even if they did try to make it "register/renew/transfer a domain through us, using our approved registrar because $reasons" type thing, the response from people who want to use it, when they realise that they can't keep using their existing domain name, or potentially can't register the domain they want because the TLD isn't supported by Apple's chosen registrar, or whatever, would be ridiculous. Hosting a custom email domain is a solved problem, technically.

Apple's focus IMO is about making technology easier to use, not about going out of their way to make things more difficult. Sometimes they go a different way to others in the industry, but very rarely do they just abandon any concept of interoperability.


I'd suggest, with some confidence that the number of people who would actually sign on to use a "apple controls everything" 'custom email domain' plan, would be so low, that they'd literally make a loss on the time and effort spent developing it. Sure, a few people, who never thought about doing it before, would hear/see about this, and say "ok sure sign me up". But how many people who already have a domain and use it for email, and/or anything else, would just hand over control, for the sake of an iCloud mailbox, when there are so many other solutions out there?


I think this feature is clearly aimed at those who already use such features, and thus has to cater pretty closely to the 'regular' way domains like this are setup for hosted email services.


As always, Apple is going to do what Apple thinks is best. That may not be what I think is best or what you think is best.

 

[jhollington]

Apple's focus IMO is about making technology easier to use, not about going out of their way to make things more difficult. Sometimes they go a different way to others in the industry, but very rarely do they just abandon any concept of interoperability

I'd suggest, with some confidence that the number of people who would actually sign on to use a "apple controls everything" 'custom email domain' plan, would be so low, that they'd literally make a loss on the time and effort spent developing it.

Well, to be clear, I'm definitely not talking about an "Apple controls everything" approach. I very seriously doubt that Apple has any interest in becoming a domain registrar or even a DNS hosting provider.

However, Apple does have an interest in making things as easy as possible for users, which is why I strongly suspect they're going to take an approach similar to what Microsoft did for Outlook.com Premium users — but find a way to do it much better than Microsoft did.

It's not Apple's style to create a service that requires its users to jump through advanced technical hoops to set up. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't find one or more good partners to offer a one-click turnkey solution. It's in Apple's DNA to do things this way, and I look to what it's done with HomeKit Routers in much the same way. You can't find a single Apple support document that will try to explain how to firewall your router to secure your HomeKit network (the closest you'll find is this generic list of TCP/UDP ports used by all Apple products). Instead, Apple created a program for other companies like Eero and Belkin (Linksys) to offer a really straightforward way to let users secure their home automation devices without being a networking expert.

In fact, I suspect this mentality may be what prevented Apple from embracing custom domains on iCloud years ago. The "old Apple" would have insisted on controlling ALL of the pieces, but it had no interest in becoming a domain name provider. The "new Apple" however, recognizes that there's much more value in playing nicely with others who have more expertise in these areas.

Sure, a few people, who never thought about doing it before, would hear/see about this, and say "ok sure sign me up". But how many people who already have a domain and use it for email, and/or anything else, would just hand over control, for the sake of an iCloud mailbox, when there are so many other solutions out there?

The thing is, I'm not sure there are too many people who already have a domain and use it for email who will be all that interested in living with the limitations of iCloud Mail as it currently stands. Unless Apple seriously improved it, it's a system for casual email users at best. iCloud+ Mail could of course offer other improvements, and I certainly hope it does, but right now it's extremely basic compared to what you can do with just about any other service that offers support for custom domains.

That said, it's also entirely possible Apple isn't reading the room properly here either. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that happened.

 

[Stephen.R]

I very seriously doubt that Apple has any interest in becoming a domain registrar or even a DNS hosting provider.

I would agree.

However, Apple does have an interest in making things as easy as possible for users

And again, I agree.

which is why I strongly suspect they're going to take an approach similar to what Microsoft did for Outlook.com Premium users

I have to say I'm in the dark here, I've never used outlook.com of any shape or size, so I have no idea what they did, or do, or don't do.

There was mention earlier where someone (I dont remember who) mentioned a 'mx forwarder' setup - surely that's not what you mean?

The thing is, I'm not sure there are too many people who already have a domain and use it for email who will be all that interested in living with the limitations of iCloud Mail as it currently stands.

Possibly not. I guess that depends on what 'features' people value, and which ones they 'have' with a competing service but either don't use, don't care about enough to pay extra, or don't even know about.

right now it's extremely basic compared to what you can do with just about any other service that offers support for custom domains.

This is the sort of thing I mean. I don't really know what 'features' of other services you use, but I consider "get the **** out of my way with novelty 'innovations' and let me deal with my email" a pretty big feature.