Here’s how Apple could make its Hide My Email feature even better for iCloud+ users

Introduced in iOS 15, Hide My Email is an iCloud+ feature that does exactly what it says on the tin: you can create an alternate email address for each individual service you sign up for and easily mute said email at any time. It prevents advertisers from having your primary email address and gives you greater control over your inbox – a total win-win situation.

That said, despite being introduced 5 years ago, the feature hasn’t progressed as much as it realistically could have. Here are my suggestions for how Apple could improve Hide My Email.

Mainly only exists in settings

For a very long time, Apple has believed that certain features should not be super exposed to the user, but simply exist in the background. This was the case with iCloud Keychain for a very long time, until it finally got its own app in iOS 18.

The same is true for Hide My Email. If an app gives you the option to generate a new email with the keyboard, you can use it. It works great in Safari, system apps, and some third-party apps, but it’s not available everywhere. On macOS, it’s even more sparse.

It might not make the most sense for Hide My Email to be its own app, but it could potentially make sense in the context of passwords. Regardless, it would be nice if the feature was slightly easier to access – making it easier to create emails in places that don’t natively expose keyboard integration.

Chrome support

Apple has had an iCloud Passwords extension in Chrome for a while, and believe it or not, it’s gotten a lot better over the years. It supports passwords, adds support for iCloud 2FA codes, and even integrates autofill from your Messages app.

It would also be nice if the Chrome extension allowed you to generate a new Hide My Email address in any email field, the same way it works in Safari. Ultimately, you have to pay to use the service, so I see no reason why Apple can’t make it work well with Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers.

Support for personalized emails

Finally, and this is more of a vanity feature – I think it would be cool if Hide My Email allowed you to use custom domains. Each email is currently an @icloud.com email address.

Apple lets you use your own domains with iCloud Mail, so theoretically it would be possible for Apple to set up aliases using your domain linked to iCloud Hide My Email. I suppose this would have less of a privacy aspect, but it would still allow you to easily mute senders from your inbox when needed – while still being able to use whatever domain you want.

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