Hide My Email on iPhone: Keep Your Real Address Private in 2 Minutes
Give apps a random email address that forwards to your inbox, and switch it off when spam starts. How to use Hide My Email on iPhone.
CasperVPN Team
October 30, 2026
Hide My Email is an Apple feature that gives each app or website its own random email address, which forwards to your real inbox. If one of those addresses starts getting spam, you switch it off and your real address stays private. Setting it up takes two minutes.
Checked on 30 October 2026.
Why keep your real email address private?
Every newsletter, shop and app that gets your real email address can sell it, leak it in a data breach or flood it with offers. A separate address for each one limits the damage to that one address.
How do you use Hide My Email for free?
When an app or website offers Sign in with Apple, tap it and choose Hide My Email. The app receives a random address ending in privaterelay.appleid.com, and its mail still reaches your inbox. Sign in with Apple works on any Apple Account, with no subscription.
How do you create an address for any website?
Creating addresses for any form needs iCloud+ (any paid iCloud storage plan).
In Safari, when you tap an email field, the iPhone can also suggest Hide My Email for you.
How do you stop an address that gets spam?
Open Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Hide My Email (for app sign-ins, use Sign in with Apple under your name), tap the address and choose Deactivate email address. Mail to that address stops at once, and you can turn it back on later.
Where does the forwarded mail go?
In the same Hide My Email screen, tap Forward To to choose which of your own addresses receives the mail.
What does a VPN change, and what does it not?
A VPN hides your IP address from the websites you visit and encrypts the connection between your phone and the VPN server, so the Wi-Fi network and your internet provider cannot see which sites and apps you talk to. A VPN does not hide the email address you type into a form. Hide My Email covers that part. More on the limits: What a VPN cannot protect you from.
Frequently asked questions
Can the website see my real email address?
No. The website only sees the random address. Apple forwards its messages to you.
Does Hide My Email cost money?
Using it through Sign in with Apple is free. Creating your own addresses for any website needs an iCloud+ plan.
Is Hide My Email the same as a VPN?
No. Hide My Email hides your email address. A VPN hides your IP address and encrypts your connection. They protect different things and work well together.
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