Do People use iCloud for Mail

[TVreporter]

Rarely …
I’m actually one of the original Hotmail account owners - still use it daily. Even got an anniversary email a few years ago for sticking with them.

Hotmail>Outlook

 

[wegster]

Well it helps that the spam I'm receiving is from actual companies. I don't sign up to anything questionable, so I've never received the kind of weird and obnoxious spam like I did when I had Gmail.


What Apple needs to do, on top of being able to compose with an HME, is to do what other alias companies like SimpleLogin does, is to let you make your own custom email aliases. Like apple.1d6jx@icloud.com. You can put whatever word you want at the beginning and then it generates random numbers and letters, that way real @icloud.com emails aren't taken up, but you still have a level of customization instead of just getting some random garbage that Apple spits out.

Yes, like the seemingly-little-known gmail aliases.
I have my @mac.com and use it for some things, but went heavy on gmail aliases - if you are user@gmail.com, you can insert +<more>, e.g. user+banking@gmail.com and it will accept and route to your gmail user@gmail.com account. With a little more work, you can add folders and filter, and allow sending outbound as any of your aliases, which now effectively have their own ‘inboxes.’

With what seems to be a huge PITA each time I do it, you can also get it working in Mail.app across Macs, i
pads and iPhones.

Don’t get me wrong, google has become pretty evil in their data collection although Facebook remains ‘king’ there. I used to run several of my own domains and mail, and may wind up back there at some point but I’ve had my gmail and @mac.com for ‘quite a while’ while life is busy enough to change something working well enough for now. I pretty much never use the gmail app or web interface and the icloud webmail last
i looked was just kinda sad, but Mail generally works well enough.

 

[Bananasaurus]

Yes, like the seemingly-little-known gmail aliases.
I have my @mac.com and use it for some things, but went heavy on gmail aliases - if you are user@gmail.com, you can insert +<more>, e.g. user+banking@gmail.com and it will accept and route to your gmail user@gmail.com account. With a little more work, you can add folders and filter, and allow sending outbound as any of your aliases, which now effectively have their own ‘inboxes.’

With what seems to be a huge PITA each time I do it, you can also get it working in Mail.app across Macs, i
pads and iPhones.

Don’t get me wrong, google has become pretty evil in their data collection although Facebook remains ‘king’ there. I used to run several of my own domains and mail, and may wind up back there at some point but I’ve had my gmail and @mac.com for ‘quite a while’ while life is busy enough to change something working well enough for now. I pretty much never use the gmail app or web interface and the icloud webmail last
i looked was just kinda sad, but Mail generally works well enough.

That isn't at all the same thing. Most email providers offer the + addition (Apple, Google, and Microsoft all offer this). But it doesn't do anything to hide your original email address, which is the point of aliases.

 

[wegster]

That isn't at all the same thing. Most email providers offer the + addition (Apple, Google, and Microsoft all offer this). But it doesn't do anything to hide your original email address, which is the point of aliases.

Got it, but not the only point of aliases. You’re looking for totally disconnected, which I’d personally prefer. I’ve yet to play with Apple’s ‘hide my email’ but use the +<source> as random one-offs to see where/if I wind up with additional unwanted mail. Wasn’t aware MS was offering anything at all.

I use them for a different purpose entirely which is simple sane filtering on different subjects plus an occasional manual one-off to see if it’s being shared. It’s brought a ton of sanity to a gmail acct I’ve had for 20 years at this point. Would absolutely be ncer to be truly unique and not tied back to the base email if it were sanely manageable.

 

[Shirasaki]

I have never and will never use "cloud" anything. People concerned about privacy should be aware that big tech providers (Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook in particular) share data amongst themselves. So anything you type in your Yahoo e-mail is shared with Google and Facebook. I wouldn't doubt Apple is among the sharers.

Which begs the question: how do you use email? Self-host? Not to mention big tech providers can profile anyone and everyone connected. It’s only a matter of how strong that profile is and how useful it can be.

 

[Junior117]

I use it, yes. I'm also transitioning to using the Hide My Email feature. Unless it's a friend or something like a bank or government, I'm using the email aliases from that feature (it will also help me track down potential spam).

 

[Siliconguy]

I’m stuck with using iCloud because 10 years ago I had an @me email that I used to sign up for everything. It looked cool at the time.

I wish I hadn’t because the spam filter sucks and now I have 14,000+ emails with no desire to sift through any.

Can't you set the inbox to auto trash anything over [some number of] days old?

 

[mazz0]

I use it because I just like having fewer accounts and keeping everything in the Apple ecosystem (I do have a non-Apple account as backup, for example for recovery if I lose access to my Apple account). I don’t think there are any real practical benefits though - if your email service is fine for you then I wouldn’t bother changing.

 

[Alex Cai]

Yes
In China, some people are amazed when I say my email ends with iCloud.com

 

[SpotOnT]

I do not. The mail storage is taken out of your tiny 5GB of free iCloud storage and I don’t want to pay for more storage. Also the web interface is pretty bad. I need to be able to access my personal email on more devices than just my Macs.

Started out with a Hotmail account way back in the early days of email, but now use fastmail. It isn’t free, but I think it is worth the $3-4 a month.

 

[Boeingfan]

ProtonMail Amends Its Policy After Giving Up an Activist’s Data

The email service says it was unable to appeal a Swiss court’s demand to log the IP address of a French climate advocate.

www.wired.com

They claimed on their website that they don't log IPs. When this story surfaced, they removed that claim from their website.

Ah ha, ok, thank you! As a recent new proton user this is handy to know. Sometimes I think I may as well just go back to pen and paper.

 

[breather]

Yup, its easy, and just works in the ecosystem.

 

[Bananasaurus]

Ah ha, ok, thank you! As a recent new proton user this is handy to know. Sometimes I think I may as well just go back to pen and paper.

I'm thinking of going back to carrier pigeon.

 

[CraigJDuffy]

I was using icloud for eons

I'm transitioning over to Protonmail, not strictly for privacy (proton is very privacy minded) but also for the features it offered. I was getting lazy in using my email and I gave out my icloud email far too many times and now its just rife with spam. I don't think apple does a particularly great job at spam filtering. It doesn't do a bad job, but others including google do a better job

I’m also looking to switch from iCloud due to the amount of spam. It’s ridiculous

 

[PsykX]

Of course I use my iCloud email all the time.
But I now use it with Outlook, as the native Mail app has always been a disaster.

 

[PsykX]

I was using icloud for eons

I'm transitioning over to Protonmail, not strictly for privacy (proton is very privacy minded) but also for the features it offered. I was getting lazy in using my email and I gave out my icloud email far too many times and now its just rife with spam. I don't think apple does a particularly great job at spam filtering. It doesn't do a bad job, but others including google do a better job

True, in fact they do a really bad job. Since 2023, I now have to check my Junk folder because every day, something actually useful goes there.

 

[iSwift5]

I use iCloud Mail yes.
My whole ecosystem is Apple...iPhone/iPad/Mac, so emails show up on all devices.
Also I only have Apple emails, no gmail etc.

Do you use youtube without an account? I think you need a google account (gmail, ndr) to join it

 

[MarkC426]

Do you use youtube without an account? I think you need a google account (gmail, ndr) to join it

Anything on YouTube I just watch in my browser.
No login required, you don't need to join to watch content...😜

 

[vagos]

Proton is shady.

Please elaborate. I'm using proton with no issues. What problems are there ?

 

[ignatius345]

A few years ago I moved every mailing list, website registration, etc away from my Gmail account and over to my iCloud account. So, my Gmail account is now strictly emails from humans and my iCloud account is almost entirely just receipts, lists, etc. I find that iCloud's "hide my email" feature makes it pretty good for that.

 

[n-evo]

Do you use youtube without an account? I think you need a google account (gmail, ndr) to join it

You can create a Google account with any e-mailadres. You don't need Gmail for that.

 

[maflynn]

Please elaborate. I'm using proton with no issues. What problems are there ?

They're not.

 

[iSwift5]

You can create a Google account with any e-mailadres. You don't need Gmail for that.

Thanks for the clarification 👍

 

[JMStearnsX2]

I've been using my @Mac.com email address since 2005, yes it's seen a lot of use. And Apple has given me LOTS of aliases for all of my aliases... (@Mac.com, @me.com, @iCloud.com)

 

[skottichan]

Yeah, I still have the old @me.com, I use that for my personal and "adult life" (bank, rent, etc.). Then I use my gmail for business stuff.

My wife uses iCloud mail exclusively.