Google began releasing, in the United States, a feature that allows you to change your Gmail username — the part that comes before “@gmail.com” — without the need to create a new account or manually migrate data.
According to the company, the functionality has been gradually implemented since last year and is now available to all Google accounts in the country.
In practice, the new email becomes the main address of the account, while the old one is kept as an alternative address.
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The entire login structure remains linked to the same Google account, which is used to access services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, Maps and Google Play.
The change process is done on the Google Account management page, in the personal information section. After accessing the account’s email area, the user can request to change the main address and enter the desired new name.
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The system only accepts combinations that are not in use and that have not been previously used by another account and then deleted.
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At the end of the update, the old address remains registered as an alternative email, and messages sent to either one continue to arrive in the inbox.
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Google informs that changing the address does not delete or alter data already stored in the account. Photos, files, messages and emails associated with the old address remain accessible normally.
Furthermore, the user can use both the new and the old email to log in to the company’s services.
There are, however, some caveats: after changing the main address to a new @gmail.com, the user cannot create another Gmail email for that same account for 12 months, nor delete the new address during that period.
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For now, Google has not announced when the possibility of changing the Gmail address will be extended to users in other countries.
