I've always had a weirdly named email address. At first it was really cool and unique. But once I started applying for jobs and sending professional emails, it stopped being charming and started feeling… off.
Seeing that same playful address at the top of a CV or attached to official documents just felt immature. Google's only solution to fixing this has been creating a new email. You can't edit the old one. That's changing with an upcoming update that will allow you renew the address.
You can finally fix those corny aliases
Google is finally separating your account from your email name, and introducing a system that lets you choose a new @gmail.com address. The company made the announcement on a Hindi support page.
When translated, the post revealed that you can keep all your existing data, including emails, Drive, Photos, YouTube, and purchases. All you're doing now is turning your old email into an alias.
An alias email address is simply an extra email address that points to your main inbox, without creating a whole new email account. It's sort of a nickname for your email. If your main email is jane.doe@gmail.com, an alias could be something like jane.work@gmail.com.
The email address associated 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.
Google
Emails sent to it to the new address will still arrive, and you can sign in with either address. But if you think you can go crazy with the changes, there's a limit. You can only change your Gmail address once per year, and only three times total.
It's understandable, given that bad actors may continuously alter email addresses to escape bans and scam people under new identities every week. Plus, people make impulsive changes in identity whiplashes. You may be going through a breakup and accidentally lock yourself out in trying to start afresh.
Google email address changes are still rolling out
To change your email address, open your preferred browser and visit myaccount.google.com/google-account-email. You may be asked to sign in for verification.
Tap Change Google Account email address. If you don't see this option, you can't change your Google Account email address at the time.
Note that you can't use an email address that is currently attached to an active Google Account, even if it belongs to you. Google also warns that you should back up your local Chromebook data before changing the address. Your PC ties files and settings to the email identity itself.
If you change the email without backing up and re-adding the account, your home directory can appear empty after you sign in. Logging out and back in may fix this temporarily, but the only permanent solution is to remove the account and add it again using the new Gmail address.
