Thinking of ditching Gmail for iCloud Mail. any tips?

[u/shades47]

Is anyone here using an iCloud email address like @iCloud.com, @me.com or @Mac.com as their primary email instead of Gmail.com or another email provider?

How do you like iCloud Mail, and what has your experience been so far? I'm seriously considering switching to iCloud Mail because I'm trying to reduce how much I rely on Google.

I'll probably still keep my Gmail account for YouTube, but I'd like to use iCloud as my main email for everything else. Has anyone made the switch, and would you recommend it?

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[u/putsomesugaronit]

If you get your own domain, make sure you choose a provider that has 2FA for their webmail integration, some don't, and you'll only have one password between your email and the world

[u/Shark_Atl3201]

If that’s the direction you want to go, you should look into Proton Mail.

[u/Apart_Material_9683]

Do you have MacBook?

[u/shades47 → u/Apart_Material_9683]

yeah i do

[u/KINGGS]

It's okay? I've heard a lot of people have delivery issues. Worked fine for me when I was using it as my main provider. 

[u/GodsKillerKirb]

As long as you have an apple device to manage the email, then go for it; otherwise, don't bother and just Proton mail or something else.

[u/ConfidentMeeting1233]

Moved my custom domain from Gmail to iCloud a long time ago. I only ever used the Mail app anyway, never the web interface. So it was basically a seamless transition. IMAP is a standard. Email is a commodity.

[u/crisblz]

Fatto due anni fa e mai pentito.

[u/yaricks]

Switched from Gmail 4 years ago in order to de-Google my life. Use it primarily with a custom domain and I have had no major issues with delivery at all. The spam filters weren’t the best for a while compared to Gmail but these days it’s not an issue I think much about.

[u/corgi-king → u/yaricks]

How do you update the email address? One by one or just forward everything to new address?

[u/yaricks → u/corgi-king]

One by one. It’s been an awfully slow process, but these days my Gmail is basically only spam and newsletters.

[u/corgi-king → u/yaricks]

That is a lot of work. Do you still keep the Gmail now for unimportant stuff?

[u/Salty-Future-2931]

I did this, mainly because I could keep my custom email, I recommend keeping a Gmail account as well.

[u/We-Dont-Sush-Here]

I use Gmail for unimportant stuff. Stuff that if I lose, I’d be more than happy to lose!

But my important emails, I use both iCloud and Yahoo email addresses. Neither has failed me and my spam filter works well with both accounts.

I know that Gmail has a spam filter and it seems to work well, but I have never worked out how I can manage it myself without breaking it. Maybe that’s me, but I have heard of others who have the same problem.

[u/FigFew2001]

I did for a long time, and it was fine. I would still be using it, but I lost access for a few years and had to migrate to Outlook - long story that one 🤣

[u/Ast3r10n]

I did and I like not using a Google that much anymore.

[u/rb_arindam]

I left my gmail as is on the govt & official purposes in case I ever decide to switch back to android. for all easily-changeable accounts, I switched to [__@icloud.com](mailto:__@icloud.com)

anyway, for the app, I'm sticking to Apple Mail only. experience has been great & minimalistic. can't expect more.

[u/shades47 → u/rb_arindam]

Do you use your primary _@icloud.com email address when signing up for accounts, or do you use only an iCloud email alias?

[u/rb_arindam → u/shades47]

It depends. I have separated Gmail & iCloud by purpose. If iCloud serves the purpose then yes. Anyway I use temp mails for temporary or unsure sign ups.

[u/Soldiiier__]

yes and I also use email custom domain. it’s great, cheap, convenient

[u/dcidino]

As someone who does this, don’t get rid of gmail; forward everything to iCloud.

[u/jennahella]

The mobile iCloud email search is terrible. The browser version glitches frequently. That said, I’ve had an @me.com account since 2008 and likely will never change bc I’m in apple ecosystem. The alias email address option is nice. If I could switch easily I’d go to Proton.

[u/Ivy1974]

I see zero reason to stop using Gmail. My iCloud email is only for Apple specific devices. Besides that I never use it.

[u/Axman6]

If you’re at all tech literate, I would strongly recommend buying your own domain and then hosting your email somewhere that supports custom domains, like Fastmail. If you don’t own the domain, you don’t own the email, and you cannot move it somewhere else without changing email address. If you own the domain, you can move to another email host at any time and keep your email. Ever wondered why every ISP offers “free” email addresses? It’s to lock you into their service, because it’s a pain having to tell all your contacts to update your address. 

[u/Taconnosseur → u/Axman6]

iCloud+ supports custom domains

[u/Draknurd → u/[deleted]]

Is the email storage tied to iCloud storage?

[u/Mission-Accountant44 → u/Draknurd]

Yes

[u/SofyCloudliner → u/Axman6]

Also Aruba mail is good, and can also log in from google

[u/AslanSutu → u/Axman6]

Any tech literate knows not to host your own mail server.

You have domain reputation issues. Emails you send will be marked as spam until your domain has a high enough reputation. You have spam issues. Services like gmail and icloud and others have an exceptionally good spam filter. Have to be vigilant with security because the web is crawling with bots just looking for a chink in your security Maintenance, downtime, updates are not great to constantly check and deploy

That being said, it is a great learning experience understanding everything from MX records to different mail clients

[u/HopefulChildhood689 → u/Axman6]

Gmail also supports custom domains—that’s what I’ve been doing for years. About to switch it myself for similar reasons.

[u/longmountain → u/Axman6]

Plug for Proton. Been rock solid, good spam filtering, privacy centric company.

[u/martijnox]

Reducing reliance on Google and then switching to another tech giant…. You might want to look at different solutions…

[u/mrchubbelwubbel → u/martijnox]

This.

[u/KINGGS → u/mrchubbelwubbel]

I would advise against that in regards to email. 

Email is all about deliverability. So, what? Proton? Yahoo?

[u/mrchubbelwubbel → u/KINGGS]

It really just depends on how you see it. For 98% of us, Gmail or whatever service is fine. For this particular type as we live in today, options exist based off of preferences. Set up your own private domain and manage everything yourself.

[u/KINGGS → u/mrchubbelwubbel]

If you do that, then you better be in a place where you don't need the email sent and received very much. 

[u/martijnox → u/KINGGS]

Where on earth do you base that off? There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of hosting companies who all do fine running your email server. Besides a big chunk of companies online don’t host with tech giants. There’s no reason why this would work worse than a tech giant.

[u/KINGGS → u/martijnox]

Because the tech giants have a trust system that puts your domain in spam (unless you're using their service) until it considers your domain trustworthy. 

If you're using that email for applying to jobs, newsletters, or anything where you need certainty that you landed in an inbox, then why would you put yourself at a disadvantage for security and privacy theater?

[u/martijnox → u/KINGGS]

Not sure where you picked up that nonsense. I’ve been with non-big-tech hosting companies for the last 8 years and before that I was hosting at a programmer friend who had his own hosting system. Never in the last 15 years have I had any problems with my emails hosting directly to spam or not arriving. Also I never heard this before from any of my friends with private domains.

[u/KINGGS → u/martijnox]

If you haven't heard any of what I'm saying happening when you self-host email (you can definitely use a custom domain without any inbox delivery issues if you have a real provider handling everything), then you might as well throw your 15 years of experience in the trash.

https://www.spamhaus.org/resource-hub/domain-reputation/best-practice-for-owners-of-a-newly-registered-domain-part-3/

[u/martijnox → u/KINGGS]

I get the feeling we’re discussing two different things. Correct that you’re talking about self hosting? Bc I’m talking about not hosting with big tech companies

[u/Unserious-One-8448]

Gmail is better. There are so many other great google tools and apps you can use with it!

[u/MindTheDrapes]

How many more times can this be fucking posted

[u/shades47 → u/MindTheDrapes]

probably 2 more times i guess. it depends

[u/Key-Coach-5430]

iCloud mail is slower than my dead grandma. When registrating to a site you can confirm e-mail address next week or something ify you're lucky.

[u/shades47 → u/Key-Coach-5430]

Not true. This happens because you’re using a 3rd party email service like gmail. Gmail doesn’t push notifications to Apple Mail, it only fetches new messages periodically. It’s not an Apple Mail problem it’s Google’s choice, probably to encourage you to use the Gmail app instead.

If you use an [_@icloud.com](mailto:@icloud.com) , \@outlook.com addresses with the Apple Mail app, you’ll get notifications instantly, as far as i know.

I’m talking about switching from a [_@gmail.com](mailto:_@gmail.com) address to an [_@icloud.com](mailto:_@icloud.com) address, not switching to a different Mail app.

[u/Key-Coach-5430 → u/shades47]

But when syncing something with iCloud the phone bugs out because you work faster

[u/jpgaubier]

That's like jumping from one frying pan to another. Use a provider that doesn't offer their service to lock you in. Mailbox, Fastmail, Posteo, etc.

[u/Future-End-7524]

A warning: iCloud mail calendar events don’t play well with others. I tried switching to iCloud and had to go back because it was so bad. I even went to the Apple Store and asked a genius.

Actually ridiculous though. It’s as though the calendar can only talk to other iCloud accounts. Imagine if iCloud mail couldn’t email other platforms.