Apple Reverses Hide My Email Domain Change After Pushback

Apple has reversed its planned domain change for iCloud+ Hide My Email after community feedback, while Sign in with Apple will still transition to a new domain later this year.



In a developer update published Monday, Apple said that after further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com. The company had announced in June that both Hide My Email and Sign in with Apple would move to the private.icloud.com domain.


Sign in with Apple will still transition later this year. New addresses will be issued on private.icloud.com instead of the current privaterelay.appleid.com domain. Existing privaterelay.appleid.com addresses will continue forwarding mail without interruption.

Apple's original plan drew criticism because Hide My Email currently shares the icloud.com domain with standard iCloud email accounts. That makes it difficult for websites to block Hide My Email aliases at the domain level without also blocking legitimate iCloud users. Critics argued that moving Hide My Email to a separate, easily identifiable domain would make those aliases much easier to block, undermining the privacy feature.

Developers with apps or websites that use Sign in with Apple are asked to ensure their account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists accept the new private.icloud.com domain alongside the existing privaterelay.appleid.com domain.