Apple’s new operating system has a feature to hide your email address by generating random email addresses. Messages sent there are then automatically redirected to your iCloud account email address.
Giving your email address without seeing your inbox get spammed is now possible. With iOS 15, Apple introduces a new function that is as easy to use as it is practical: Hide my email address. Thanks to it, you can generate random aliases, in the format @ icloud.com, which you can substitute for your original email address.
The function can be used both to generate an address on the fly when filling out an online registration form, as well as to manually create unique random addresses. It allows you to create as many as necessary and then takes care of redirecting all e-mails addressed to it, to your original e-mail address.
The sender never knows your real e-mail address. Even better, these random addresses can be disabled temporarily or permanently, seriously jeopardizing the activities of spammers whose spam emails never reach their destination. This option is, for example, very useful for filling out a form or for temporarily subscribing to a newsletter. It can also be used, within a certain limit, to communicate with a third party without their knowledge of your usual e-mail address.
When you receive an e-mail sent to one of your aliases, their sender is not identified under their original address, but also under an alias, in the format name_at_mail_fr_aliasApple@icloud.com. Thanks to this, you can reply to him from your original mailbox, with your real address, without it being revealed to him. Function Hide my email address automatically detects your usual address, and by associating it with the alias of the sender, replaces it with the alias associated with it.
Please note, however, that it is not possible for the moment to initiate the sending of a message using an alias. Apple could, however, add this option to Mail in a future update of iOS 15.
Here’s how to take the strain off your inbox by implementing the Hide Email feature in iOS 15.
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1. Go to iCloud Settings
Open iOS Settings, enter your iCloud account, and go to the iCloud menu. Then go to the Hide my email address menu.
2. Create an alias
By default, iOS 15 already displays a number of predefined aliases, using an address of type @ privaterelay.appleid.com. These addresses actually correspond to the module Sign in with Apple integrated into the applications already installed on your device, and which also allows you to connect to online services by hiding your e-mail address.
Function Hide my email address in itself allows the generation of alternate e-mail addresses. Depending on your needs, an alias can be used for one or more services. Apple does not limit the number, so you can create as many aliases as you need for email addresses for use with certain online services.
To create a new address (an alias), tap Create new address. Hide my email generates a new random email address in the format @ icloud.com. If this doesn’t suit you, you can generate a new one on the fly by tapping Use another address.
When you are satisfied with the generated alias, tap the Add a label to your address field so you can easily identify what it will be used for.
If necessary, Apple even offers to Add a note to the alias. Then press the Next button at the top right to save your new email address and then click Done.
3. Manage the alias
Now that you have an alias, used it in forms, or communicated it, you should see a number of emails coming into your inbox that you might want to avoid.
To do this, Hide my email address offers two options. Go back to Settings> Your iCloud account> iCloud> Hide my email address and scroll through the list of saved addresses until you find the alias to manage, and enter the menu associated with it.
Then press the Disable Email Address button to temporarily disable this alias. As the address no longer exists (temporarily), all future messages sent to it will be sent back to their sender.
Disabled random addresses can be reactivated on demand, by going to the Inactive addresses menu at the bottom of the alias list. You can then choose to Delete the address if you no longer use it.