For more than 20 years, Gmail, the world’s largest email account provider, has made it easy for users to change the sender’s name on their email accounts.
But if a user wanted to keep all their data and services — such as YouTube or Google Drive — connected to their @gmail account, the email address itself had to remain the same.
Some users — like those who have held the same account names since they were teenagers, or people who have changed their names — wished they were not locked into a state of permanence.
In recent days, though, Google has quietly started to roll out a way for users to change their Gmail addresses ending with @gmail.com, and keep all their emails, no matter how old their account.
The change appears to have been first noticed on Wednesday in a “Google Pixel Hub” Telegram group.
So far, the new feature is reflected only on the Hindi-language version of Google’s support page, but it looks like it will be coming to other languages and regions.
“The ability to change your Google Account email address is gradually rolling out to all users, so this option may not be available to you right now,” according to an English translation of Gmail’s support Hindi language support page.
The same message was on Google’s help center in other languages.
Google did not immediately respond to questions about the rollout, and about which users would be next to gain the feature and when.
On Sunday, the support page in English still read: “If your account’s email address ends in @gmail.com, you usually can’t change it.”
Under the new feature, users’ old Gmail addresses won’t disappear after they change their email addresses. Instead, the old email address will automatically become an alias, allowing it to still receive emails.
Gmail users can sign in to Google services using their old or new email address, including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Google Play, and Drive. Crucially, all of a user’s files, photos, subscriptions, calendar invites, and purchase history stay on the existing account.
There also appears to be limitations, according to the Hindi-language version. Users can change their address only once every 12 months. Additionally, users can create only up to three new email addresses per account, for a lifetime total of four Gmail addresses. And they won’t be allowed to delete their new email address either.
Still, the changes should be welcomed by users who have clamored for them.
It appears that any changes would apply only to @gmail.com addresses, and not to Google accounts obtained through employers, schools, or other groups.
Of course, users would still need to choose a name that is not associated with another Gmail account for their requested change to be accepted.
