iOS 15: How to Use Hide My Email

[Robert.Walter]

FYI - Just tried your suggestion but received a permanent error saying "the email account that you tried to reach does not exist". I used a fake extension like "mygmailacct_testemail@gmail.com"

Could be he mistook a - for the +. The plus works but not all site profiles accept it. Ps Other symbols like the . are ignored by gmail. No experience with the _.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Thanks for that! Also why is this hidden in the iCloud menu no one I know ever opens and not part of I don’t know .. the MAIL menu?

I’ve filed bug reports to Apple on this too. Both SIA and HME should be integrated into iCloud Keychain Password interface.

The way it’s set up it’s hard to convert to the unique email system and difficult to have an overview.

Average users will get frustrated by the crap multiple interfaces and give up.

 

[Robert.Walter]

That works-thanks. On 2nd thought this still exposes your real gmail address to recipient.

This is the other reason I suspended converting my online accounts to a +001 +002 set up.

 

[Robert.Walter]

This should be built-in to the login / create login, etc., feature so it could be done ON THE FLY (i.e., at the entry point) rather than having to dive into the Settings applet. Hopefully, in a later version ...

For the most part it is like that.

Apple’s big failure was not integrating it and SIWA into Passwords. It’s super confusing and clumsy (not for me but for most folks I know, they will think it’s crap and give up.)

 

[0924487]

I own a domain and then use a bespoke address for each and all sites which get piped to a single master (catch-all) account. e.g. macrumors@mydomainnamehere.com. That way I can:
1) See who sold my email / has slack security, allowing my address out into the wild (Yes I mean you, ProtectYourBubble, GolfOnline, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc..)
2) Blackhole that address.

Alternatively, with Gmail, you can add an underscore and then anything you like, and you will still get it.
E.g. mygmailaccountname_macrumors@gmail.com

Having a bespoke email address is good as well as if bad people get a hold of it, they can't automatically be sure they can login to your account elsewhere, should you make the mistake of reusing a password which lets face, we all have done at some point.

I take it to an extra level.

I don’t want to be predictable and let the hackers find a trend.

Instead of doing macrumors@test.com or no-reply+macrumors@test.com, I do no-reply+macrumors_gxr2a@test.com.

The last 5 alphanumeric chars make sure that it cannot be guessed from the name of the service.

 

[kycophpd]

Am I missing how you send an email from the new hidden email address in Mail? I don’t see the option even though I have created a few hidden email Addresses.

 

[Blowback]

Using a different alias for each account login helps identify where the problem has come from if you do start getting spam, or in case the service you have an account with gets hacked. You only have to change that one account email or alias, rather than changing lots of account that use the same one. There might be other reasons too, but this is what I like the idea of this service for.

Then you'll have to play the old 'INIT' game. Remember that from years ago????? Turn half off....reboot...test....turn other half off.....remember?

 

[0128672]

Am I missing how you send an email from the new hidden email address in Mail? I don’t see the option even though I have created a few hidden email Addresses.

I don't get that part either. In the expanded MR guide, it says:

"Hide My Email works for both receiving and sending emails. If you respond to an incoming email that was sent to a Hide My Email address in the Mail app, Apple will continue to obscure your email address in the reply." (https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-privacy/)

But when I test this by replying to a Hide My Email email, the reply is from my default email account (which is an iCloud account). There isn't a way to select any address other than my normal Apple ID emails and aliases.

 

[Woochoo]

Why wouldn't they?

Some been living under a rock or just won't care about Apple's CSAM. But I guess many people will forget about their integrity the moment Apple starts with some smoke and mirrors with iPhone 13 to distract people and make them go all in accepting it without complains. For iPhone 14 and iOS16 Apple will introduce something else, it's just a matter of tiptoeing in so people eventually gets used to it.

 

[TrulsZK]

With my own domain I have access to unlimited email accounts and aliases.

So this is something I have been doing for years, random email for each service, and storing the generated emails in 1Password.

 

[TrulsZK]

I really love this, but however the limit of just 100 aliases does make it, well, limited and in the end not very useful. Hopefully they increase the limit after beta.

100 is definitely not enough!
I use a random email for each service/newsletter/anything with my domain. Currently I have about 250 random email addresses and still counting upwards.

 

[smoking monkey]

This plus the private relay feature sound gold plated. I know you have to sign up and pay monthly, but it'll be way more value for money than Apple Arcade or Apple TV plus.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Am I missing how you send an email from the new hidden email address in Mail? I don’t see the option even though I have created a few hidden email Addresses.

that feature is not active yet.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Then you'll have to play the old 'INIT' game. Remember that from years ago????? Turn half off....reboot...test....turn other half off.....remember?

ha, yeah maybe. I thought you’d be able to more easily see which email alias had been broken. If you know that ’myemailalias@icloud.com’ has been used for an account with ‘totallylegitshopping.com’, wont You be able to see that spam is coming to that same alias, and then deal with that website? Or will things be more hidden than that, and you’ll only see that the email arrived to the collecting email address rather than knowing which alias it was? With the current three aliases that you can set up with iCloud, you can tell which one was used. Hope it will be the same with this service.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I don't get that part either. In the expanded MR guide, it says:

"Hide My Email works for both receiving and sending emails. If you respond to an incoming email that was sent to a Hide My Email address in the Mail app, Apple will continue to obscure your email address in the reply." (https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-privacy/)

But when I test this by replying to a Hide My Email email, the reply is from my default email account (which is an iCloud account). There isn't a way to select any address other than my normal Apple ID emails and aliases.

youre still in the beta. Not a features are active.

 

[Mac4Mat]

Does seem hypocritical to have a hide my email in the same breath as allow Apple to interrogate your hardware.

 

[PikachuEXE]

iCloud‌++++++++++++:
Disable on device whatever scanning at $99.9/month

 

[NightFox]

Or you can simply have a secondary email address for all the spam and registrations on websites.

Why is 100 not enough? I don’t see the need to use a different one for every single website I subscribe too.

I would use them mainly for websites I don’t really trust. And I’m even then I could still cluster.

Having a unique email address for each company/website/service gives you more granular control over managing emails from just that sender; you couldn't do that if you're clustering or just have a single, generic secondary email address.

 

[NightFox]

The current inability to send an email from one of these generated email addresses is a potential issue.

I've previously had problems with a receive-only email alias of my own* where a company's privacy policies meant they refused to deal with my emails unless they were sent from the same email account I'd registered with. Even when I said they could send an authentication code to that email address and I'd be able to confirm it to prove I had control of the email address, it was something they couldn't cope with.

*a legacy of Apple's .mac, mobile me and iCloud's lack of ability to merge accounts - thanks for still not having sorted this out Tim.

 

[RickDEGH]

I love the concept but having to pick n' chose which sites I actually use this feature or not, is a weird compromise considering the quite limited implications this has on Apple's end. I am using it now, for 100 accounts. So it's useful there, but not for the majority of my account and thus not that useful in the long run.

Your use case might be an outlier in the grand scheme of things. For the overwhelming majority (myself included) this might just be enough, so your statement could be more personalized.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Your use case might be an outlier in the grand scheme of things. For the overwhelming majority (myself included) this might just be enough, so your statement could be more personalized.

The 100 accounts is a moot point as the limit was lifted earlier this week.

I’m presently at 135 HME addresses or so, and expect to hit around 200 when I’m done converting all my online accounts to HME.

For consistency’s and simplicity’s sake, I think I will eventually convert my about 25 existing SIWA accounts to HME format as well.

No need to play favorites or make Solomonic strategic decisions between accounts now. Haha.

Once the ability to reply from any HME addresses is activated, this system, except for the Balkanized nature and lack of a single integrated Passwords, SIWA, HME, page will be pretty good.

After all, these 3 things have tremendous content and functional use overlap, and scattering them into three different sections of settings, with a lack of common interface theme, reduces utility by making it clumsy (tapping like crazy up out of one section and down into a different section and back again), confusing (difficult to get an overview) and frustrating for average users. This will limit uptake and limit the beneficial potential of these features for customers. (Also for Apple if it is looking for this to be a super sticky feature.)

 

[Robert.Walter]

The current inability to send an email from one of these generated email addresses is a potential issue.

I've previously had problems with a receive-only email alias of my own* where a company's privacy policies meant they refused to deal with my emails unless they were sent from the same email account I'd registered with. Even when I said they could send an authentication code to that email address and I'd be able to confirm it to prove I had control of the email address, it was something they couldn't cope with.

*a legacy of Apple's .mac, mobile me and iCloud's lack of ability to merge accounts - thanks for still not having sorted this out Tim.

If Apple remains true to their preview materials, sending from the HME addresses will be possible. (I’m curious to see how that send interface looks when one has a couple hundred single entity addresses to choose from. Replying wouldn’t be so hard but initiating a new mail would require an overview of related entities to pick from.)

Can’t lie, I don’t know why Apple hasn’t offered, or forced, a pathway for combining Mac, me and iCloud based addresses as well as the ability to purpose create more than a small handful. (Why can’t a user create their own HME address if they want in addition to the automatically created ones? Are they concerned about vulgarity or something attached to “@iCloud dot com”?)

 

[RickDEGH]

The 100 accounts is a moot point as the limit was lifted earlier this week.

I’m presently at 135 HME addresses or so, and expect to hit around 200 when I’m done converting all my online accounts to HME.

For consistency’s and simplicity’s sake, I think I will eventually convert my about 25 existing SIWA accounts to HME format as well.

No need to play favorites or make Solomonic strategic decisions between accounts now. Haha.

Once the ability to reply from any HME addresses is activated, this system, except for the Balkanized nature and lack of a single integrated Passwords, SIWA, HME, page will be pretty good.

After all, these 3 things have tremendous content and functional use overlap, and scattering them into three different sections of settings, with a lack of common interface theme, reduces utility by making it clumsy (tapping like crazy up out of one section and down into a different section and back again), confusing (difficult to get an overview) and frustrating for average users. This will limit uptake and limit the beneficial potential of these features for customers. (Also for Apple if it is looking for this to be a super sticky feature.)

Well, that sounds good - everyone, and perhaps all use cases covered. I skipped the betas this year, so yet to try this out. Your post is insightful.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Well, that sounds good - everyone, and perhaps all use cases covered. I skipped the betas this year, so yet to try this out. Your post is insightful.

The public betas have run well on my 6S and iPad Air 2 (oldest iOS 15 supported devices.)

Meanwhile, on non beta iOS 14.7, both my mom and sister have each had pairing problems between their Apple Watch 6 and iPhone 11.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Another useful feature.

Slow news day! Tech news drought in full effect!

This isnt’ slow … this is proper useful and tangible news - that all iOS users could benefit from.

I’d rather this as news vs junk about Hank Azaria playing Tim Cook in a series about Uber. It’s not even about Apple just a few sections playing Tim. It’s not really useful nor tangible for all iOS users.