There are plenty of times when you might need a new Gmail ID. A lot of websites and subscriptions have deals aimed at new customers, and this is particularly true with streaming platforms. So if you’re previously subscribed to something and want to access deal pricing again, the logical thing to do would be to just create a new Gmail account.
But you don’t have to do that. Did you know that Gmail doesn’t recognize any dots in an email? So if your ID is thisismyemail@gmail.com, then if you write this.is.my.email@gmail.com, this.is.myemail@gmail.com, or this.ismyemail@gmail.com, Gmail won’t see a difference — as this 2008 Gmail blog post clarifies. In fact, you can include as many periods as you want, and you’ll still get mails delivered to your primary ID.
Gmail always had this feature, and as someone who’s been using my account for over two decades, I used this trick endlessly to sign up at websites and filter emails. This is what you need to know about Gmail aliases, and how you can get started using it with your email account.
Why you need to start using Gmail aliases
Creating new Gmail IDs is a hassle. Even though the service doesn’t cost anything, there isn’t a reason to do so if all you need to do is sign up as a new customer at a site or streaming platform where you’ve given out your primary ID previously.
All you need to do is add a dot anywhere in your existing email ID, and that’s it! You’re essentially a new user at wherever you’re registering, but you’ll still get the email at your primary Gmail ID. I use this yearly to subscribe to the NYT and Bloomberg as a new user instead of having to renew, which costs a lot more. While all other websites distinguish thisismyemail@gmail.com and this.is.my.email@gmail.com as two distinct email IDs, Gmail doesn’t care if you have dots in the email address, and that basically gives you a lot of flexibility in coming up with unique email IDs while signing up at a website — all without having to actually make a new Gmail account.
On that note, Gmail aliases are also a great way to identify if a website is selling your details to marketers. In addition to dots, you can add a + sign after your email address and write any combination of letters or numbers, and still get the email delivered to your email ID. I do this when signing up for a newsletter or subscribing to email alerts. I buy a lot of stuff at IKEA, so when I need to provide an email ID to sign up for notification alerts, I just give thisismyemail+ikea@gmail.com, and the email shows up on my primary mail ID.
This way, if you ever get spam at the address you provided (thisismyemail+ikea@gmail.com), you’ll know that IKEA shared your data with third-party brokers (IKEA doesn’t do this, by the way, but you get the idea). I do the same trick when signing up at e-commerce sites that mandate an email ID.
How to use Gmail aliases
There isn’t much you need to do to start using Gmail aliases. There’s no setting to change or configure, and you just have to remember to add a dot (or ten) when signing up with your Gmail ID at a service you’ve used previously.
Same thing with the + sign; you can use as many variations of these as possible, and the only thing to note here is that you need to do so before the @ sign, so thisismyemail+bestbuy@gmail.com will be okay, but not thisismyemail+best@buygmail.com.
Both methods work without any issues, and I’ve been using both for decades now. Honestly, I’m only writing about this now because I realized in recent conversations with friends and family that this isn’t something everyone knows about. So if you’ve had to create several Gmail accounts over the years just to get a new email ID, know that there’s no need to do so — you can just add or dot or + sign while signing up just about anywhere.