More than three months ago, a Google support page suggested that the company would soon roll out an option for users to change their email addresses on “@gmail.com”. At that point in time, the details only showing up in Hindi but now, Google appears to have shifted priorities and launched this change only for users in the United States.
In case you’re wondering what’s the purpose behind this shift? Think whether you’ve ever created a Gmail ID with words that meant to be fun while creating them and is profoundly embarrassing now?
The change was first observed by “Google Pixel Hub” on Telegram while 9to5Google shared it with the rest of us and brought us up-to-speed with the idea. Remember, Google was quite rigid about changing email addresses on their ‘gmail.com’ domain, while allowing users to change their mail IDs if they used a third-party email address.
On the same support page that currently says that you usually can’t change your email, Google is detailing a new process that is “gradually rolling out.” The altered page weirdly shows up in Hindi at the moment, meaning you can’t see the changes in English, the article published by 9to5Google had said.
Now it turns out that Google would be rolling out a feature whereby users in the United States would be able to change their Gmail address without having to start over again and minus any fear of losing access to their existing data. Those with access to the feature need to visit Google Account Settings, move to Personal Info > Email > Google Account email option.
Thereafter, tap on the “Change Google Account email” button to start the process of changing the username (You can watch this video to know more). However, there is a caveat that users will be able to make this change only once every 12 months and once changed they won’t be able to delete this new mail address for a similar length of time.
The company said users’ old emails will be preserved, and the old email address will serve as an alternate address for the account. Users will be able to sign in to Google services using both the old and the new addresses. Interestingly, the company’s Support Page still has only the Hindi version, and there seems no way to land up an English translation of the same.
Per the Hindi only Support Page, here’s what changes…
If your account’s email address ends in @gmail.com, you usually can’t change it. The email address linked with your Google Account is the address you use to sign in to Google Services. This email address helps you and others identify your account. If you’d like, you can change your Google Account email address that ends in gmail.com to a new email address that ends in gmail.com
Per the note, once a user has changed the email address, the original email address would continue to receive emails in the same inbox as the new one and work for sign-ins. So, all that happens is that when a user changes the mail ID the old one gets set up as an alias, which means you will get copies of the same email in both email addresses. And users can use either of the two addresses to sign into other Google services like YouTube, Google Play etc.
Of course, the company does not detail why they decided to go live with the support page in Hindi or when the roll out would eventually reach an Indian audience. Incidentally, India is Google’s second largest customer base after the United States. So, our guess is we should soon be able to change our embarrassing old email IDs with smarter new ones too.
