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.
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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.
This is big. I'm surprised this wasn't even mentioned in passing at the event. Paves the way for an Office 365 / G Suite competitor. #WWDC21 pic.twitter.com/w9D9Ap3Jjk — Luke Bettridge (@bttrdg) June 7, 2021
We've reached out to Apple for additional information. Either way, expect more details as we approach the launch of iCloud+ in the fall.
Top Rated Comments
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.