One of the most annoying limitations of Gmail is that once you choose an email address, you're stuck with it. There are exceptions for third-party addresses, such as work emails tied to a company domain, but for a typical @gmail.com account there is no doubt. Personally, I've had multiple loyalty programs and store accounts tied to an embarrassingly abrupt email from high school for decades now, but it finally seems like I might be able to change that.
A recently updated Google support page says the company is now “phasing out” the ability to change your Gmail address, with some restrictions. Oddly enough, the page is only available in Hindi at the moment, so I have reached out to Google for clarification on where and when this feature will be available and will update when I hear back. However, the support page says (via machine translation) that the feature will go “to all users”, meaning it will see a global release at some point.
Just in case, I checked to see if I could change any of my personal Gmail addresses, but had no luck. But once this feature becomes available to you, you will be able to do it.
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On your computer or mobile device, go to myaccount.google.com/google-account-email.
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At the top of the page, click or tap Personal Information. On a mobile device this may appear as “Personal Information”.
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Click or tap Google Account Email.
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From there, click or tap “Change your Google Account Email Address” and enter your updated email address.
Please note that these instructions have been filtered through machine translation, so the exact wording may vary by region. I'll add official English instructions when they become available, but the process seems simple enough.
However there are a couple of wrinkles. The most important thing is that emails sent to your old address will still be sent to your new one, and in some cases, your old email address may still appear instead of the new one, such as in calendar events created before you changed your address. This is because your previous name will be listed as an alias for the account rather than removed. This can be frustrating if you're trying to keep old contacts, but it also ensures that important contacts don't get lost in the shuffle and prevents anyone else from signing up for a new account with that email address. You'll also still be able to use your old Gmail address to sign into any accounts associated with it, and no matter what you sign in under, you'll still have access to all your messages, photos, and other files.
What are your thoughts so far?
You can also return to your old address at any time, but as for changing it to a new address, you can only do this once a year and three times in total. So don't change it to a stupid new address every Halloween and then it'll be normal again in November.
Still, this should be a major quality of life improvement and should help Google's email service better catch up with more liberal email providers. like Proton. No longer will I look like an edge lord every time I talk to the cashier at Sephora.
