Apple reverses course on Hide My Email domain change, keeping addresses at icloud.com

Apple has reversed a planned change to its Hide My Email privacy feature, confirming in August 2026 that masked email addresses will remain on the @icloud.com domain rather than moving to @private.icloud.com as previously announced.

Hide My Email is a feature available to paid iCloud+ subscribers that generates a unique, disposable email address users can provide to websites in place of their real address. Emails sent to the masked address are routed to the user’s actual inbox. A key aspect of the feature is that privately generated addresses are indistinguishable from those belonging to regular Apple users with an @icloud.com address.

Earlier in 2026, Apple said it planned to migrate users to the @private.icloud.com domain. Users pushed back on social media and Reddit, arguing the change would allow websites to easily identify and reject these addresses during sign-ups, effectively undermining the feature’s purpose.

Apple did not publicly explain why it reversed the decision. John Gruber of Daring Fireball, who first reported the about-face, said Apple employees had objected to the domain change from the beginning.

The reversal comes amid broader scrutiny of the feature. Earlier in 2026, 404 Media reported a bug in Hide My Email that exposed users’ real email addresses — specifically when emails were rejected as spam. Apple fixed the bug more than a year after first being made aware of the issue.

For iCloud+ subscribers who rely on Hide My Email to limit exposure of their personal email addresses, the decision to retain the @icloud.com domain means the feature’s core privacy benefit — blending masked addresses with standard Apple accounts — remains intact. Apple has noted, however, that it retains the ability to identify the real user behind a masked address when required by law enforcement.