What to know
- Google is developing “Shielded Email,” a new privacy feature that will let users create temporary email aliases to protect their main email address.
- The feature will automatically forward emails from the alias to your primary Gmail inbox, with the ability to turn off forwarding anytime to control spam.
- Similar to Apple’s “Hide My Email,” this tool aims to protect users from online tracking, data breaches, and unwanted spam when signing up for apps and services.
Google plans to introduce a new privacy-focused feature called “Shielded Email” that will help you keep your primary email address private when signing up for apps and services. The feature has been discovered in the latest Google Play Services update (version 24.45.33), signaling its potential launch in the near future, as spotted by Android Authority.
When you need to provide an email address to sign up for an app or service, Shielded Email will generate a unique, temporary email alias that forwards all messages to your main Gmail inbox. If you start receiving unwanted spam, you can simply turn off the forwarding for that particular alias through your Google Account settings.
The new feature appears to be Google’s answer to Apple’s “Hide My Email” service, which has been available to iCloud+ subscribers since 2021. Beyond just spam prevention, Shielded Email will help protect users from online tracking and potential data breaches by limiting exposure of their primary email address.
While the feature’s implementation details remain unclear, early evidence suggests it will be integrated with Android’s autofill system and Google Password Manager. The discovery of Shielded Email in the Autofill settings menu, though currently non-functional, indicates that Google is actively working on rolling out this privacy enhancement.
For now, Google hasn’t announced whether Shielded Email will be a free feature or require a Google One subscription, similar to Apple’s approach of offering Hide My Email as part of its paid iCloud+ service.
