Apple keeps Hide My Email on icloud.com after user pushback

Apple told developers on August 24 that iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will keep their `icloud.com` suffix, backing away from a June plan to consolidate the alias service onto a new `private.icloud.com` domain alongside Sign in with Apple. The company's developer news post states that Hide My Email "Remains on icloud.com (unchanged)."

Only Sign in with Apple will make the domain jump. New addresses will transition from `privaterelay.appleid.com` to `private.icloud.com` "later in 2026," while existing `privaterelay.appleid.com` mailboxes will continue to work and forward mail to users without interruption.

The climbdown follows what 9to5Mac reported as user backlash over the original plan. Moving Hide My Email to a dedicated suffix would have made it "significantly easier for websites to identify and block the privacy feature," the outlet wrote, since platforms could simply deny any address ending in `private.icloud.com`. Apple justified the reversal by saying it acted "after further consideration and reviewing community feedback."

The practical burden lands on developers. Apps and sites using Sign in with Apple must, in Apple's words, "ensure that their account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists accept addresses on the new private.icloud.com domain in addition to the existing privaterelay.appleid.com domain." The split leaves Apple juggling three live email suffixes at once: `icloud.com`, `privaterelay.appleid.com` and `private.icloud.com`. That is the kind of surface-area cost this reversal accepts in exchange for keeping Hide My Email harder to filter out.