Gmail Allows American Users to Change Their Email Addresses

Anyone still walking around with an embarrassing Gmail address from their teenage years is in luck. From now on, Google will allow users in the United States to change their usernames without creating a new account.

Google announced in a blog post on Tuesday that American users can now freely change the part before “@gmail.com”. The tech company had already started developing this feature last year . According to Google, the step is necessary so that accounts can better evolve with the user’s identity.

Users need not fear losing important data or old messages. When they change an email address, the original name continues to function in the background as an alias for the new inbox. As a result, emails sent to the outdated address will still end up in the same mailbox.

Logging in to other company services, such as YouTube, Google Drive, and Google Maps, also remains possible with both the old and the new login credentials.

Once a year
However, Google has built in some restrictions. For instance, you may change the account name only once a year, with a maximum of 3 changes over the account’s lifetime. You also cannot delete the newly created name for twelve months after creation. As a user, you can revert the account to its original email address at any time.