Introduced in iOS 15, Hide my email iCloud+ is a feature that does what it says it does – you can create an alternate email address for each individual service you’re signed up for, and easily switch off that email whenever you want. This prevents advertisers from having your primary email address and gives you better control over your inbox – a total win.
That said, despite being introduced 5 years ago, the feature hasn’t progressed as far as it could realistically have. Here are my suggestions for how Apple could improve Hide My Email.
Mainly available only in settings
For the longest time, Apple believed that certain functions should not be too exposed to the user and instead exist in the background. For the longest time, that was finally the case with iCloud Keychain has its own program In iOS 18.
The same goes for Hide My Email. If the program allows you to create a new email on the keyboard, you can use it. It works great in Safari, system apps and select third-party apps – but it’s not available everywhere. It’s less common on MacOS.
Maybe it doesn’t make the most sense for Hide My Email to be its own app, but it might make sense as part of Passwords. Either way, it would be nice if the feature was a little easier to access – so it’s easier to compose emails in places that don’t natively expose keyboard integration.
Chrome support
There was Apple iCloud Passwords extension in Chrome it’s been around for a long time, and believe it or not – it’s only gotten better over the years. It’s gained support for passkeys, added support for iCloud 2FA codes, and even integrates autofill from your Messages app.
It would be great if the Chrome extension allowed you to create a new Hide My Email address in any email field, similar to how it works in Safari. After all, you have to pay to use the service, so I see no reason for Apple to make it play nice with Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.
Support for custom emails
Finally, and this is more of a vanity feature – I think it would be great if Hide My Email allowed you to use custom domains. Every email is currently an @icloud.com email address.
Apple lets you use your own domains With iCloud Mail, it would theoretically be possible for Apple to set up aliases using your domain that connects to Hide My iCloud Mail. I suppose this would have less of a privacy aspect, but it would allow you to easily cut senders from your inbox if needed, while still being able to use the domain you want.
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