The long wait to change your Gmail address might soon be over

24 Dec 2025, 21:21 by Karandeep Singh Oberoi · Android Police

There's not a lot that's permanent in the digital landscape, but for the longest time, our Gmail account addresses have felt like one major exception to that rule.

If you created your Gmail account when you were young, I'm sure you've grown out of the 'edgy' username that might have seemed like a great idea back then. Been there, done that.

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For the longest time, your only option has been to either:

Endure the embarrassing email, or
Create a new Gmail account and migrate your entire digital life.

After several years, Google finally understands that this might be a burden for some, and it finally seems to be taking action.

This isn't really confirmed, but it looks like Google might soon let users change their "@gmail.com" email address to a different "@gmail.com" email address. The development was first spotted in the 'Google Pixel Hub' group on Telegram and highlighted by the folks over at 9to5Google.

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Google lets you change addresses that don't end in '@gmail.com' into addresses that do, and that's exactly what's detailed in the embedded article above. However, Google might now be testing letting users swap from one '@gmail.com' address directly to another, effectively taking away Gmail addresses' permanent status.

The development comes via a change in documentation on a Google support page. Interestingly, the page detailing the change is currently only visible on the Hindi version of Google’s support site. When translated, it says "If your Google Account email address ends with gmail.com, you can replace it with one that ends with @gmail.com."

This isn't simply a translation error. I can read Hindi and I can confirm that the translation is accurate. "The ability to change your Google Account email address is gradually rolling out to all users, so this option may not be available to you right now," explained Google, which might explain why the documentation change hasn't made its way to the English support site, or why it isn't available as an option within my Gmail account settings yet.

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The support page also lists other details, including what to expect when changing an "email address ending in gmail.com to a new email address ending in gmail.com."

The old email address in your Google Account that ends with gmail.com will be set as an alias.
You will receive emails at both your old and new email addresses.
Data saved in your account, including photos, messages, and emails sent to your old email address, will not be affected.
You can reuse your old Google Account email address at any time. However, you can't create a new Google Account email address that ends with gmail.com for the next 12 months. You can't delete your new email address either.
You can sign in to Google services like Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Google Play, or Drive with your old or new email address.

According to a user comment on 9to5Google's X post about the feature, the option to change a "@gmail.com" suffixed email into a different "@gmail.com" one is already live for them via Gmail's 'My Account' settings. This, as mentioned earlier, isn't live for me and many others yet.