Apple Not Changing "Hide My Email" Addresses After All

In July, I reported that Apple planned to migrate domains for both iCloud Private Relay (Sign in with Apple) and "Hide My Email" over to a new shared domain: private.icloud.com. While existing legacy addresses were set to keep working, all newly generated addresses were slated to shift to the new subdomain.

Apple has now changed its mind, at least on half of that plan. As noted by Daring Fireball (and others), Apple is dropping the domain migration for "Hide My Email" and keeping those addresses on icloud.com.

In a brief update on the Apple Developer portal, Apple writes: “After further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com.”

What does this mean for email senders? The reversal only applies to "Hide My Email." Apple is still proceeding with moving "Sign in with Apple" (Private Relay) addresses to private.icloud.com.

Here is where the two features stand:

• Hide My Email (iCloud+): No change. New and existing addresses will remain under standard icloud.com domains.
• Sign in with Apple (Private Relay): Moving to private.icloud.com. Existing addresses on privaterelay.appleid.com will continue to function and forward mail without interruption.

For email marketers, system administrators, and deliverability teams, you will still need to ensure your email validation logic and allowlists account for two distinct Apple Private Relay domains (private.icloud.com and privaterelay.appleid.com). However, Hide My Email addresses will stay indistinguishable from regular icloud.com mailboxes.