Do not like your previous Gmail tackle? You’ll be able to create an alias.

Final 12 months, I informed you in regards to the grueling ordeal I went via to maneuver every part from my previous Google account to my new one. Though I did this for a lot of causes (a digital life reset, consolidating each digital asset below one account, and so forth.), a kind of causes was that I merely didn’t like my years-old Gmail tackle. I discovered the entire migration course of to be an absolute nightmare, which you possibly can learn extra about in the event you’re .

The truth that this was such a ache to do was infuriating, particularly when you think about that different platforms make the method a lot simpler. For instance, Microsoft lets you have a number of electronic mail accounts linked to a single Microsoft account via an alias system. This made it extremely easy to maneuver all my present Microsoft account data and historical past — together with Home windows licenses, paid Home windows apps, my Microsoft 365 subscription, and extra — to a brand new electronic mail account with only a few clicks. The concept Microsoft has nailed this down however Google hasn’t is confounding.

Confusingly, Google does supply an alias system for Gmail — a indisputable fact that was identified to me repeatedly by commenters on my unique article. Nonetheless, this method shouldn’t be almost as sturdy as Microsoft’s and wouldn’t have solved my drawback. Nonetheless, it’s a useful gizmo that doesn’t get talked about sufficient, so I wished to provide it some love.

A Gmail alias lets you ship emails from an tackle completely different out of your main Gmail tackle. That is helpful when you’ve got completely different electronic mail accounts for various functions — say, one on your private life and one other on your job. As an alternative of swapping between these two accounts, putting in a number of apps, or utilizing an electronic mail app that helps a number of account logins (Outlook, BlueMail, Thunderbird, and so forth.), you solely want to make use of the Gmail app. You’ll be able to have as much as 99 aliases linked to anybody Gmail tackle.

Word that this solely lets you ship emails from different accounts. You’ll not obtain emails in your main Gmail inbox via any alias accounts, not less than not routinely. To have emails addressed to different accounts despatched to your main Gmail inbox, you should use Gmailify, a software constructed into the Gmail net app at mail.google.com. This requires that your secondary electronic mail account have POP entry enabled. Yow will discover full directions on doing this on Google’s assist web page. You’ll be able to add as much as 5 accounts with this method.

A extra simple (though much less elegant) system for doing that is to arrange computerized forwarding in your alias accounts. Most main electronic mail suppliers supply this, together with Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, Yahoo, and so forth. The method for establishing an computerized ahead differs for every platform, however Googling “computerized electronic mail forwarding [email platform goes here]” will doubtless get you what you want. You are able to do this with a limiteless variety of accounts.

With Gmail aliasing and computerized forwarding setup on this trend, all of your emails from all of your accounts could be funneled into one Gmail inbox. If you reply to an electronic mail, you should use a drop-down menu to select the tackle you’d like that response to return from. Gmail thus turns into a one-stop store for all of your electronic mail wants, which is actually handy.

You’ll be able to even make this extra organized utilizing Gmail’s filter system. For instance, you would create a filter that routinely flags any electronic mail that was addressed to an account that isn’t your main Gmail. That might will let you simply see that an electronic mail in your inbox was not despatched to your main account and, thus, ought to doubtless see a response from an alias. You can even get extra organized by routinely shifting emails addressed to alias accounts into separate folders. The Gmail filter system is kind of highly effective, so there’s actually no restrict to what you are able to do right here.

Whereas it is a terrific approach to hold all of your electronic mail accounts in a single spot, it additionally lets you change your Gmail tackle with out worrying about switching all of your publication sign-ups, third-party account logins, or different methods to a brand new account. For instance, in case your main Gmail account is “embarrassingname@gmail.com” and also you’d prefer to cease utilizing that and use “appropriatename@gmail.com” as an alternative, you possibly can create the brand new “appropriatename@gmail.com” account within the normal trend after which join it as an alias to “embarrassingname@gmail.com” (or vice versa). With the next addition of computerized forwarding, you should use your new Gmail tackle whereas nonetheless seeing all of your electronic mail despatched to your previous Gmail tackle. You’ll be able to both proceed with this method indefinitely or use it as a stop-gap whilst you slowly purge all associations to “embarrassingname@gmail.com.”

This might work for a lot of conditions, together with while you legally change your title, go away a job, want a “burner” electronic mail account, or simply need one thing recent. With 99 alias slots to fill, you would do that a complete lot with minimal effort. Do be aware, nevertheless, that you’d must undergo the standard steps to create a brand new Gmail account every time — there isn’t any approach to arrange a brand new account via the Gmail alias system.

Now that you simply perceive what a Gmail alias can do, let me clarify what it can’t do and why the entire alias system wouldn’t have helped me throughout my digital life reset. Essentially the most vital (and considerably complicated) factor to know in regards to the Gmail alias system is that it has zero impact in your wider Google account.

For example of what I imply, let’s take an app you bought from the Google Play Retailer. If you purchased that app, the acquisition was logged as linked to your Google account title, which means the e-mail tackle you used for it. With a purpose to proceed utilizing that app, you’ll want to remain signed into that Google account. For those who signal out of that Google account, you’ll not have entry to the app. Likewise, in the event you change to a different Google account, you’ll must re-buy that app. That is additionally true for all different Google-owned services and products, together with YouTube, Maps, Drive, Pictures, and on and on.

Erroneously, some may assume {that a} Gmail alias would resolve this drawback. In different phrases, one may suppose that in the event that they use Google Account A and join Google Account B to it via the Gmail alias system, the bought Google Play app would then be obtainable on each accounts. That is definitively not the case, although. There at the moment isn’t any approach to be part of a number of Google accounts, neither is there a approach to switch a Google Play buy from one Google account to a different.

If Google had an alias system for Google accounts themselves, not simply Gmail, this drawback can be mitigated. Throughout my digital life reset, I might have linked my new Google account to my previous one after which merely stopped utilizing the previous account exterior of safety checks and the like. That is what Microsoft has achieved, which I described earlier. For causes I don’t comprehend, Google has no system in place for doing this.

The underside line right here is that the Gmail alias system is terrific for managing electronic mail throughout a number of accounts. That’s all it’s good for, although. It’s not an answer that can assist you utterly ditch your previous Google account and change to a brand new one — except you don’t have anything there that you simply care about.