iCloud+ to Let iCloud Mail Users Personalize Their Email Domain Name

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple announced that iCloud is getting a premium subscription tier called "‌iCloud‌+," which includes tentpole privacy features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. Another feature included in ‌iCloud‌+ that wasn't discussed in the keynote is the ability to create a custom email domain name.

iCloud General Feature
From Apple's iOS 15 features preview page, under the ‌iCloud‌+ section:

Custom email domain
Personalize your iCloud Mail address with a custom domain name, and invite family members to use the same domain with their iCloud Mail accounts.

In essence, what this means is that when ‌iCloud‌+ goes live, Apple will allow users to change their ‌iCloud‌ Mail address completely. For instance, the email address jonnyappleseed@icloud.com could be changed to jonny@appleseed.com, forgoing the icloud domain reference entirely for a more personalized or businesslike look.

Additionally, Apple will allow users to invite family members to use the same domain name with their own ‌iCloud‌ Mail accounts, although it's not currently clear if family members will need to be part of Family Sharing for this to work.

For users of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other email providers, this sort of email address personalization has been available for a long time, so Apple could eventually prise some customers away from the competition with this move. It remains to be seen whether custom email domains for ‌iCloud‌ Mail will have certain limitations that rivals don't set, though.


We've reached out to Apple for additional information. Either way, expect more details as we approach the launch of ‌iCloud‌+ in the fall.

Tag: iCloud

Top Rated Comments

frou Avatar
26 months ago
Uh oh, Fastmail's $50/yr from me is in danger now!
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Saturnine Avatar
26 months ago
I'm going to keep an eye on this. I used MobileMe & iCloud Mail for years before ditching it.

I had severe issues with spam. I was fortunate enough, back in 2008, to register MyFirstName@me.com, but over time it got spammed to oblivion despite me being very careful with whom I gave my address.

I later found that Apple's spam filtering system would 'score' each e-mail as spam (as shown in the headers) but would then still deliver it to my Inbox, despite having Junk Mail filtering turned on. Many of the servers sending spam were on blacklists but, again, Apple accepted mail from them. I even had several converations with people in Cupertino about it but with no real resolution.

If Apple have sorted out their spam filtering and provide one particular feature I'm looking for I may revert from using FastMail. The one feature is a 'catch-all' mailbox. I currently have my e-mail so that alias@mydomain.com is delivered to my Inbox. I use a different 'alias' for each website I sign up for. If any one particular alias starts receiving spam, I know exactly who leaked my address and can add a mail filter for that alias. That would be the killer feature, for me.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Middling Avatar
26 months ago

This is a good start, but they should increase the Inbox space from 5 GB for it to make sense. As of right now, 5 GB is not worth much unless you are just starting out with iCloud as a family and are in your honeymoon period with it.
This feature is only available as part of the paid iCloud+ so you'll be paying at least $0.99/month which will get you 50GB of storage.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bilbo--baggins Avatar
26 months ago
Finally might be able to move from Google Workspace (g suite). Had resigned myself to think it would never happen. Hopefully there won’t be any disappointments.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
idmean Avatar
26 months ago
Yay, I was right back in January! https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/new-apple-services-could-include-podcasts-stocks-and-mail-analysts-predict.2279278/?post=29479962#post-29479962
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. 123 Avatar
26 months ago
Does one need a domain name for this to work or can you just create one via the settings app?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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