Google is finally testing a new feature that lets users change the username of their Gmail address. As mentioned in the recently updated support documentation, Google has begun rolling out an experimental feature that allows users to modify the first part of their email address, i.e., the one that comes before “@gmail.com.”
The rollout has started quietly (there’s no official blog post or update), with India as the company’s first test market. Early sightings suggest that the feature is based on the Google account settings rather than Gmail.
Finally, a fix for your embarrassing Gmail address
While the experimental feature lets some users change their email username, it doesn’t allow them to convert a Gmail address to a completely different domain or reuse a taken username.
Considering that users’ Gmail addresses are part of their digital identity, allowing them to change them could provide the flexibility they need, saving them from having to create a new Gmail account from scratch.
If your Gmail address still includes a decade-old nickname, random numbers (as the ones you wanted were unavailable), or certain alphanumeric choices that you’d not want to mention in your resume, you should be able to change your Gmail address once the feature starts rolling out to a broader user base.
Instead of juggling between accounts and forwarding emails from one to another, the new feature lets you clean up your address while keeping your emails, Drive files, and subscriptions intact.
It’s worth noting that Google hasn’t confirmed when, or if, the feature will roll out globally. It’s also unclear whether Google will place a limit on how many times you can change your email address or username, or how the company will handle third-party logins with the changed username.