Gmail May Soon Let Users Change Their Email Address

Google may be testing the ability for Gmail users to change their @gmail.com email address. The company detailed the new feature in a support page in Hindi spotted by the “Google Pixel Hub” group on Telegram (via 9to5Google).

In the translated support page, Google explained that “If your Google Account email address ends with gmail.com, you can change that email address to an email address that ends with @gmail.com.” The support page also says that changing Google account email addresses is “being rolled out gradually to all users.”

At the moment, Google only allows users to set up alternate email addresses (which may not end with @gmail.com) to sign in to their account. There’s also an option to switch from a non-Gmail address for a Google account to a Gmail address. In that case, the original email address associated with the Google account becomes an alternate email address.

Anyway, what Google is testing now is the ability to change an existing @gmail.com email address, and the support page in Hindi details the consequences of doing so. Google says that the old @gmail.com email address will become an alias address for the Google account, and that users will receive emails at both their old and new email addresses.

The company also explained that users will be able to keep using their old @gmail.com email address to log in to Google services. However, it won’t be possible to create a new Google Account email address that ends in @gmail.com for the next 12 months. New email addresses also can’t be deleted.

This new option to change a Gmail address doesn’t appear to be live yet, so it’s possible that Google published this updated support page too early. As you may know, Microsoft’s Outlook.com email service lets users easily add email aliases and change their primary email address, so it would be nice to see Gmail add a bit of that flexibility.