When you first chose your gmail address, it may not have been obvious that it would stay with you for many years and become the main way people communicate with you not just by sending and receiving mail electronic, but also on youtube and any other services owned by google. what seemed right back then might not match the way you look today.
you may want to change your address because you got married and want to use your new name, or because you hate the numbers that were generated after your name because you were the 7,000th john smith to register, or you’ve come to realize that chugchugchugabugger69@gmail.com was fine when you were at the rugby club, but not exactly ideal now that you’re head of communications.
so is it possible to change the name in your gmail address? well, no, but here’s how to fix this problem.
can i change my gmail address?
google claims that in some cases you may be able to change your username (the part before @gmail.com), but this is unlikely. To find out you will have to go to your google account. the path differs depending on the type of device you are using.
On a computer, you can open gmail, then click your profile picture in the top right corner and select manage your google account. in the left column, click personal information, then scroll down and click your email address in the contact information section.
for android users, you will need to go to settings > google > manage your google account > personal information then in the section marked contact informationselectemail. while iphone users need to open the gmail app, tap on the three lines to open the menu and then go to settings > your account > manage your google account > personal information then look for the contact information section and select email.
In the google account email section, you will see your current address. if you can click or touch it, you will be able to change the settings, but most likely this will not be possible.
clicking on advanced will reveal something called alternate emails. These allow you to set up non-gmail accounts that can be used to log into your account and send emails, but while this seems like the perfect solution, there are a few issues. When people share things with you on Google Docs, Google Calendar, or other Google sites, they’ll see your existing Gmail address instead of the alternate one. therefore, if you really want to keep the email secret, you will need to take other steps.
how to send an email from an old gmail account to a new one
If you want to make sure your old address doesn’t show up somewhere and embarrass you, then the only way to do that is to set up a whole new google account.
However, this doesn’t mean you have to cut ties with your old address, as you can set it to forward all emails to the new account. it means you will have to leave any favorite videos on youtube behind, but you can always recreate it at your new address.
then go to gmail, sign out of the account you want to leave behind, then select create account and follow the instructions.
When you’re done doing this, you’ll need to go to your computer (mobile devices can’t set up forwarding) and sign in to your old gmail account. click the gear icon in the upper right corner to open the menu, then select settings.
At the top of the main panel, you’ll see a series of headings. click forwarding and pop/imap, then select add a forwarding address.
enter the address of your new account, then select next > proceed > good.
gmail will now automatically send a verification message to the new account and you will need to get the included confirmation code before you can continue. Once done, go back to the gmail pop/imap/forwarding section for your old account, enter the code and click verify.
You will now see in the forwarding section that two options have appeared: disable forwarding (default) and forward a copy of incoming email to followed by your new address and another menu with various options. we recommend leaving the latter as keeping the copy of gmail in the inbox. the final step is to select the forward a copy of incoming email to option, then scroll down and click save changes.
that’s it. You should now have your new gmail address, plus you won’t miss any messages from your old one. If you fancy trying a different email service, be sure to check out the best free email services.