What Is Hide My Email?

Online privacy is incredibly important, but it’s hard to keep your identity secure when you have to give your real email address away whenever you join a website. And if your email address is just your name like -jane.doe@gmail.com — you could be giving away even more data.

In the past, when people primarily used a PC or a MAC to send and receive emails, we recommend they get a free-throw away email address to help minimize spam and email tracking. Now Apple has created this function for their users and it couldn’t be easier to use.

That’s where Apple’s “Hide My Email” service comes in. Hide My Email lets you create unique, random email addresses to use with apps, websites, and more so your personal email can stay private. It’s built in to Sign in with Apple and iCloud+. Hide my Email is available for iPhones, iPads and MAC’s.

Here’s how to use Hide My Email and manage your fake email addresses.
Hide My Email is available to all users with iOS 15, but you’ll need iCloud+ to use it in some places. You’ll see Hide My Email as an option in two situations:

Using Sign in With Apple
A few years ago, Apple launched the Sign in With Apple program. This lets you make accounts in new apps using your Apple ID information. It’s a quick way to get started in an app without having to remember a new username and password.

1. Open an app that offers Sign in With Apple as a choice when creating your account and pick that option. You should be given a choice: You can pick Share My Email, which gives the app your real email address; or Hide My Email, which will give them a fake one.
2. Pick Hide My Email, and then Continue.

A Sign in With Apple page, where the user has selected the option to hide their email. If the app wants your email, you’ll be given the option to hide it.

Going forward, any email the app sends you will still be sent to your real email address, but the app won’t know what that address is. Anyone with an Apple ID account can use this feature.

Signing up for a new service or filling out a form
This feature is only available to iCloud+ users. When you fill out forms online, they usually ask you for your email address. Hide My Email works here, too.

1. Tap the text field that asks for your email address.
2. If your phone recognizes that it’s asking for your email, you’ll see Hide My Email appear as an autocomplete option. Tap it. An iPhone user selecting an email entry field, and being presented with the “Hide My Email” option. Hide My Email will appear in the autocomplete bar.
3. A menu will appear and offer you a randomly generated email address. Tap the refresh button next to it to get a new one or continue to save and use it.
4. On the next screen, give the fake email a Note so you can remember what it’s being used for, then tap Use.

How to send emails from your fake email address
Newer versions of iOS 15 let you make a Hide My Email address straight from the Mail app and use it to send emails from that fake address.

1. Open the Mail app and start composing an email.
2. Tap the From field and select Hide My Email.

As you start writing the rest of the email, your phone will create a fake email address for you. An email being composed in the Mail app on an iPhone, with the options to create a fake email address highlighted.

You might want to use Hide My Email if you’re looking to avoid being put on a mailing list or having your primary email address sold to spammers. It’s a great idea and Apple has made it easy for their users.

Apple’s Information on Hide My Email
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210425