what to know
- Add a dot: Gmail ignores the dot, but adding a dot makes other sites look like a new address: j.oesfamily@gmail.com.
- Add a plus sign after your username to add other words to your address: joeman+moretext@gmail.com, joeman+thatsmyname@gmail.com.
- Set up filters: Settings > View all settings > Filters and blocked addresses > Create new filter . Enter address > Create filter .
This article explains how to tweak your Gmail address to create dozens of variations that look different to senders without actually creating a new Gmail account.
Gmail ignores periods in addresses, so add a dot anywhere in an email and Gmail will pretend it's not there. However, any website you sign up to will see that your dotted email address is different from your non-dotted email address; this means you can sign up for multiple accounts on the same site without having to have multiple email accounts.
Here are some examples. Remember, each address is exactly the same, so you can send mail to all of them to reach the same inbox.
- j.oesfamily@gmail.com
- jo.esfamily@gmail.com
- joe.sfamily@gmail.com
- joes.family@gmail.com
- joesf.amily@gmail.com
You cannot add a period after the @ symbol, but anything before it can be adjusted. You can even add multiple periods, like this:
- my.business.is.great@gmail.com
- mybusiness.is.great@gmail.com
- mybusiness.isgreat@gmail.com
According to Google, all three of the above email addresses are again identical. However, you can create three social media accounts using these addresses, as they generally assume that each address is from a different person.
Some sites recognize this behavior and won't let you create multiple accounts with the same email address, even if you use this period adjustment. However, for most websites, you can expect it to work fine.
You can also add several adjacent periods. This method only works when logging into Gmail, though; you can't message someone if the two dots are adjacent.
- These...are...the...same@gmail.com
- These are .the…s.am…e@gmail.com
- t.hese.ar..e.th.e.same@gmail.com
Another way to generate a different Gmail address using just a syntax trick is to add a plus sign at the end of the username (before @ ). Doing this allows you to add other words to the address, so it may actually look completely different.
Here are a few examples of extensions to the email address joeman@gmail.com :
- Qiaoman+moretext@gmail.com
- Qiaoman+thatsmyname@gmail.com
- Qiaoman+ilovehunting@gmail.com
So, why add a plus sign to your Gmail account? In addition to tricking some websites into letting you create multiple accounts as described above, you can also more easily find out if a website is selling your email address to advertisers.
For example, if after creating an account on a website using joeman+possiblespam@gmail.com , you start receiving emails to that unique address from a company you have never contacted, you can bet that the website you signed up for has been compromised. your message. email address.
You can also use plus addresses to set up Gmail filters. For example, if you sign up for an email newsletter using the joeman+ilovehunting example above, you can have Gmail automatically filter emails sent to that address and put them into a folder containing only messages from that hunting newsletter.
Here's how to set up email filters with a hacked Gmail address:
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner of Gmail, then click View all settings from the drop-down menu.
Click Filters and Blocked Addresses from the list of tabs.
Click Create new filter at the very bottom of the page.
Enter a special Gmail address in the "To" text box. For example, if you wanted to filter all emails sent to this address, you could write joeman+ilovehunting@gmail.com .
Click Create filter .
To automatically move messages sent to this address to a specific folder, select the label next to "Apply label." There is also an option in this drop-down menu to create a new label.
(Optional) Check any other options you want to enable, such as mark as read or never send it to spam .
Click Create Filter to complete the filter.
These Gmail address tweaks are possible because Google ignores periods and plus signs in its email addresses. It treats all incoming mail (whether dot or plus) as the exact same account. As far as Gmail is concerned, periods and plus signs don't exist at all.
If this is confusing, consider this: When you signed up for Gmail and chose an email address, you probably used the trick above and ended up with the same address you had. In fact, you can log into Gmail using one of these adjusted addresses, and Google will take you to the same email account with the same email, contacts, and other information.
