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iOS 15.2 Beta: How to Use the Hide My Email Feature in the Mail App

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With iOS 15 and the Hide My Email feature exclusive to iCloud+ subscribers, you can create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox whenever you want to keep your personal email address private. In iOS 15.2, which is in beta right now, you can use Hide My Email directly from the Mail app.

ios15-mail-privacy-feature.jpg

When you use Hide My Email, all the emails sent to the random Apple-created email address are forwarded to you so you can respond if needed, but the person on the receiving end does not see your real email address.

This is especially useful if you think that a business is likely to share your email address with ad agencies or other third-parties for marketing purposes. Providing them with a dummy address means you can delete the address at any time, ensuring any unsolicited emails don't reach your inbox.

Here's how it works with the Mail app in iOS 15.2.
  1. Launch the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap the New Message icon in the bottom-right corner of the main Mail screen to compose a message in the normal way.
    Fill in the To: field. Next, tap the Cc/Bc, From: field to collapse it and then tap From again.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the list of available addresses and select Hide My Email.
    ios-hide-my-email.jpg

    Now compose your email as normal and send it.
In addition, as a paid iCloud+ subscriber, you can use random email addresses when you're asked to enter your email address on a website in Safari. Just select the Hide My Email option when it appears on the screen.

You can also deactivate or delete addresses generated by Hide My Email, and change your forwarding address at a later date. See the links for details.

Article Link: iOS 15.2 Beta: How to Use the Hide My Email Feature in the Mail App
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/hide-your-email-address-mail-ios-app/
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I assume this is very similar to the existing feature where you can long press an email field on a registration website, and get Apple to generate a random @icloud.com proxy. I tried that recently. Meh, the website in question instantly reported that it won’t accept that kind of email address.
 
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There should be an option to choose a email address which was generated before.
Some of services identify the user using the email address when they are trying to contact to the Support Center.
Generating a new email address every time I have to contact the a service while keeping my personal information?
This is not helpful I guess.
 
Is it kinda of email aliases addresses offered by ie Protonmail, Tutanota etc?!
 
TheYayAreaLiving ? said:
This is a very good feature. But I'm not sure if it's going to be useful or beneficial?

What's the point of hiding the email when you can receive SPAM emails?
Click to expand...

I have a LOT of pages I signed up for once upon a time that I do not even remember and now they got my email address which I wish they didn’t and therefore I wish this would have been available sooner.

Now I can sign up on page X and if I receive spam to that address, I know page X shared my email with 3rd parties and can easily erase that account with one click
 
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patsio said:
Is it kinda of email aliases addresses offered by ie Protonmail, Tutanota etc?!
Click to expand...
Not even remotely. You can create unlimited aliases using this, whereas you are limited to a set amount with Protonmail and Tutanota. You can't delete aliases at will like you can with this Apple service. With Tutanota if you max out your aliases you have to wait a year before making new ones. With Protonmail you have to contact customer support just to delete an alias. With this Apple service you are in full control.


contacos said:
I have a LOT of pages I signed up for once upon a time that I do not even remember and now they got my email address which I wish they didn’t and therefore I wish this would have been available sooner.

Now I can sign up on page X and if I receive spam to that address, I know page X shared my email with 3rd parties and can easily erase that account with one click
Click to expand...
Yes exactly. You can see exactly what idiots are sharing your e-mail address with third parties.
 
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I just wanted to check that feature and found out I had a dozen of aliases in the settings. The earliest was from march 2020. I didn't even remember using proxy emails from apple...
 
4nonymous said:
There should be an option to choose a email address which was generated before.
Some of services identify the user using the email address when they are trying to contact to the Support Center.
Generating a new email address every time I have to contact the a service while keeping my personal information?
This is not helpful I guess.
Click to expand...
You do get continued access to the generated email address. And if you de-activate you can restore it.
 
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Bandaman said:
Not even remotely. You can create unlimited aliases using this, whereas you are limited to a set amount with Protonmail and Tutanota. You can't delete aliases at will like you can with this Apple service. With Tutanota if you max out your aliases you have to wait a year before making new ones. With Protonmail you have to contact customer support just to delete an alias. With this Apple service you are in full control.



Yes exactly. You can see exactly what idiots are sharing your e-mail address with third parties.
Click to expand...
Sounds good, but a i'm bit confused is it only for paid iCloud+ subs?
 
steve62388 said:
You do get continued access to the generated email address. And if you de-activate you can restore it.
Click to expand...
You can’t use it in Mail app if you are initial sender
To communiate using the generated email address, the recipient must send me a email first.
However, the new update only provides generating a new address every time I send a new mail.
 
4nonymous said:
You can’t use it in Mail app if you are initial sender
To communiate using the generated email address, the recipient must send me a email first.
However, the new update only provides generating a new address every time I send a new mail.
Click to expand...
Maybe I misunderstand your points but they all seem to be wrong.

I just tested against them and my results are:
- You can use HME as initial sender.
- You don’t need to be responding to a recipient to use HME.
- If you create an HME address it is stored in the HME list and is available every time you send to that recipient. It is not automatic in all cases but simply pic send from HME in the list and the HME address will be pulled from the list.
 
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I might note that sending an email from a HME address (at least initially) to a group is not possible.

If you populate TO with more than one recipient address you get a pop up disallowing this.
 
I also note that if you create a HME address for a domain either in safari or manually in the HME part of settings, if you later send an email to an individual on that domain, the HME is not used.

This means you could have one email address for the domain site, ie your bank, but unique HME addresses for each employee at the bank.

I expect that some folks are going to get into a confusing mess by HME lacking the option to offer the domain HME address as the address for each contact on that domain. The dynamic nature of creating and deleting HME addresses at will, combined with the lack of a sort and or filter function in the HME registry will make use of this feature increasingly clumsy for users that don’t judiciously and strategically use the feature.

Ps I have a feel for this as I converted all the profile contact info in all my online accounts to HME and have appx 400 entries in the registry. It’s already clumsy (due to lack of search, filters and slider index on right border) and this is before the ability to create unique HME addresses for individuals.
 
A nice feature, but yet another lock in to Apple unless you want all of your "free" dummy email accounts to stop working.
 
Robert.Walter said:
Maybe I misunderstand your points but they all seem to be wrong.

I just tested against them and my results are:
- You can use HME as initial sender.
- You don’t need to be responding to a recipient to use HME.
- If you create an HME address it is stored in the HME list and is available every time you send to that recipient. It is not automatic in all cases but simply pic send from HME in the list and the HME address will be pulled from the list.
Click to expand...
Nope, You have to "generate a new address" to use it as an initial sender in Mail app.
There is no option to "choose previously generated address" when sending a new mail.

I see I can use only one email address when sending to a specific target (specific domain, etc.) which had already sent a mail previously.
So this is my misunderstanding, however there's still one problem.

For example, I registered a website called "riskywebsite.com" with an email generated from HME.
One day, something went wrong with the website, so I decided to contact to the website — e.g.) help@riskywebsite.com
I want to use the email address that was generated when I register. to send them a new mail.
But there is no option to "choose previously generated address" from Mail app.
There's only "Hide My Email" button that is generating a new mail (because I haven't sent them a mail before)
I don't want to generate a new one. I just want to use existing one.

WRONG:
riskywebsite.com → blah.blah_02@icloud.com
help@riskywebsite.com → blah.04_new@icloud.com

RIGHT:
riskywebsite.com → blah.blah_02@icloud.com
help@riskywebsite.com → blah.blah_02@icloud.com or blah.04_new@icloud.com

This is what I want to say.
I want to set email addresses which was used when I register and which will be used to send a new mail to them same.
Because the recipients are same.
 
I would use Apple Mail if only it was possible to archive items swiping. Right now there's only the option to either set the swipe to archive or delete on the one side, but I need both for a fast workflow. It used to be that both left and right swipes could be configured, I really wonder why they took that out...
Long story short, I use Spark and Apple’s disposable address feature is less convenient for me.
 
LV426 said:
I assume this is very similar to the existing feature where you can long press an email field on a registration website, and get Apple to generate a random @icloud.com proxy. I tried that recently. Meh, the website in question instantly reported that it won’t accept that kind of email address.
Click to expand...
Won't accept it? They look pretty much like normal addresses, like some.words_2x@icloud.com. It's not the same as sign in with Apple, which generates more artificial looking addresses. I've used hide my email many times already without any problems.

steve62388 said:
That would be the 'Sign in with Apple' service. Something slightly different.
Click to expand...
Right, but they are shown in the same list. The style of email (and domain) gives away which one it is, though.
 
LV426 said:
I assume this is very similar to the existing feature where you can long press an email field on a registration website, and get Apple to generate a random @icloud.com proxy. I tried that recently. Meh, the website in question instantly reported that it won’t accept that kind of email address.
Click to expand...
Yeaahh that’s probably a website I’d steer clear from if they’re actively blocking it. (In attempts to get your data most likely)
 
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Wonder what happens when kids start sending harassing emails to other kids or teachers with this feature?
 
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