Change your Gmail Address

[0:00]Okay, raise your hand if you created your email account when you were a teenager and now you're just a little embarrassed of the address you chose. Or maybe you have an email address that references an old job, or you got married, or a transition to a different name and you want your address to reflect that. Most email services don't let you change your address, and until very recently, that included Gmail. But now Gmail is rolling out a new feature that does let you change your email address. Now, remember, your email address is an important part of everything you do online. So there are some important considerations and potential risks, which are actually not so risky once you understand how things work. But you probably want to get straight to the point. So sign into your account at gmail.com, click the account button in the top right and choose manage your Google account. On the left, go to personal info, then choose the line for email. Look for the line here that says Google Account email. Here's that same line on two different accounts. On one account, I can click the arrow in that box, and that takes me to where I can change my address. But on the other account, it says you can't change this address. So you'll need to check this for your own account. The option is only available to people with their own personal accounts. So if you have a Google workspace account managed by your company, you'll need to work with your company's administrator to see if you can change your address. This option is only available if your address ends in @gmail.com. And also remember, I said that this is a new feature and as of mid-April 2026, some people will have the option and some people won't. You should be able to check back every week or two until the feature is available in your account. But I can do it here with this account, so let's focus here. But before you make the change, it's important to understand what's going to happen here. Most people use their Gmail for more than just checking their mail. You probably use your email address to sign into any number of streaming services, online stores, and other apps. So if changing your address meant that your original address would disappear, that would actually be a pretty terrible idea for most people. Fortunately, that's not what's actually happening here. Let's take one step back, and in your email settings, there's an option for alternate emails. If you have another email account, like an Outlook, iCloud, or any other account, you could add that here, and then you could use that address to sign in to your Gmail, or use it to reset your password if you ever locked out. And this is important because if you do change your Gmail address, it does not delete your original address. It keeps your original address and sets it as this alternate email. Then it sets your new address as your primary. So let's do it. So I'll scroll back up to where it says Google Account email, and click that arrow, and click the option that says change Google Account email. You can set any address you want, as long as it is not already been taken by somebody else, and it has to end in @gmail.com. That one is available, so I'll click change email. It shows my current address and the new address and asks me to confirm, and I'll click yes. And that's it. Now I can just start using this new email address. I can use it to sign in to my account. I can have all of my future co-workers and clients contact me there, and I can use it to set up new accounts with online stores. But if I go back to those email settings, I can see my new address is listed under Google Account email, and my old address is now listed in the alternate email section, which means I can continue to use that original address for all of the third-party apps and stores that are currently connected to it. I can even use that address to sign into Gmail if I want. And any messages that are sent to either the new address or the old address will arrive in the same inbox. So effectively, my account now has two addresses that mostly work the same. So how often can you make this change? Well, Google says that you can change back to your previous email at any time, but you can only make a new account once every 12 months. So this is not something that you can keep changing every week. But this was quick, it was easy, and now I can use my new address or my old address as needed. To keep learning and for more videos like this, be sure to subscribe to this channel.