Apple keeps iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses on icloud.com
Apple published an update on its developer news page on August 24, 2026, addressing two related but distinct email relay features. First, new Sign in with Apple addresses, the throwaway relay emails Apple generates when a user signs into an app or website with their Apple ID, will start being issued on a new domain, private.icloud.com, instead of the current privaterelay.appleid.com. Apple says this change begins later this year, without giving an exact date, and that existing addresses on privaterelay.appleid.com will keep working and keep forwarding mail without interruption, so nothing breaks for addresses already in use. Second, and separately, Apple said that after further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses, the relay addresses iCloud+ subscribers create to mask their real email when signing up for services, will remain on icloud.com rather than move to the new domain. The post does not say what the original plan for Hide My Email was, what specifically the community feedback consisted of, or where it came from; it only states that the decision was reconsidered and the outcome is that these addresses stay put. For developers, Apple's guidance is that any app or website using Sign in with Apple should update its account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists to accept addresses on the new private.icloud.com domain in addition to the existing privaterelay.appleid.com domain, so that users who get the newly issued relay addresses are not blocked or rejected.
Key facts
- Apple will start issuing new Sign in with Apple relay addresses on private.icloud.com instead of privaterelay.appleid.com, starting later this year.
- Existing privaterelay.appleid.com addresses keep working and keep forwarding mail without interruption.
- iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com, reversing an earlier plan after Apple reviewed community feedback.
- Apple tells developers using Sign in with Apple to update account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists to accept the new private.icloud.com domain alongside the existing one.
- The post does not explain what the original Hide My Email migration plan was or what the community feedback specifically said.
Why it matters
Apple runs two separate email-masking systems under one umbrella, Sign in with Apple's per-app relay addresses and iCloud+'s Hide My Email. Both work by generating a disposable forwarding address instead of exposing a user's real email. This update shows Apple splitting their infrastructure: Sign in with Apple addresses move to a new domain, while Hide My Email addresses do not, after Apple walked back an earlier plan to change that too. A reversal driven explicitly by community feedback is notable for a company that rarely explains changes of direction in this much detail.
Who it affects
Anyone using Sign in with Apple to log into third-party apps or websites will eventually get relay addresses on the new private.icloud.com domain, while their existing privaterelay.appleid.com addresses keep working unchanged. iCloud+ subscribers who use Hide My Email to mask their address when signing up for services are not affected by any domain change, since those addresses stay on icloud.com. Developers who built any allowlist, spam filter, or validation logic around the privaterelay.appleid.com domain need to update it before the new domain starts being issued.
How to use it
No action is needed from end users on either system; existing addresses on both domains continue to function. Developers integrating Sign in with Apple should update account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists to accept addresses on private.icloud.com in addition to privaterelay.appleid.com, so that users assigned a new-domain address are not rejected at signup or login.
How solid is it
This is a first-party announcement published directly on Apple's developer news page, so the facts of what is changing and what is staying the same are as authoritative as it gets. What is not verifiable from the post itself is the substance behind it: Apple does not say what the original migration plan for Hide My Email was, what the community feedback actually consisted of, or where it was collected, so those details cannot be confirmed one way or the other from this source.
Risks and caveats
The exact start date for issuing addresses on private.icloud.com is unspecified, only "later this year", which leaves developers without a firm deadline to finish updating their systems. The post also does not say whether privaterelay.appleid.com will eventually be retired once the new domain is in use, so developers should not assume the old domain will disappear, but also should not assume it is guaranteed to stay forever based on this post alone.
“After further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com.”
— Apple, developer news update, August 24, 2026