Why You Shouldn’t Use ‘Hide My Email’

Hide My Email was added to iOS 15 as a security feature to protect your email address. Instead of sharing your email address with websites and other online services, Hide My Email lets you generate a fake email that forwards to your actual email address. As a result, you can sign up for a newsletter and create logins for websites without disclosing your email. This service also protects your email from being shared with third-party services. Though some may find it useful, not everyone needs this level of security for their email address. Here are a few reasons why you may not want to use Hide My Email and how to turn it off.

Hide My Email Isn’t Usually Necessary

Not everyone wants to hide their email all the time. There are trusted websites and critical services where you’ll want to use your actual email address. In these cases, you might choose to connect with these trusted services without hiding your identity or your email. You don’t want to get confused with randomly generated email addresses that you may forget.

Random Email Addresses Are Messy and Confusing

Hide My Mail is limited to just one generated email address. You can use multiple emails — one for each online service – but if you are not careful, you could end up with dozens upon dozens of fake email addresses. It can be a nightmare to keep track of them.

To simplify your emails you can ditch Hide My Mail and instead create a single email address that you use for junk purposes.

How to Deactivate a Hide My Email Address

Even if you’ve used Hide My Mail, you can change your mind and disable one or all of the generated emails.

1. Open the Settings app on your Home screen.
2. Select your Apple ID at the top of the screen.
3. Select iCloud.
4. Select Hide My Email.
5. Select the email address you want to deactivate.
6. Select Deactivate email address or switch off “Foward To” to turn off email forwarding.

Once disabled, you will no longer be able to use the email addresses that you generated. You can always change your mind and re-enable it down the line.