During the WWDC 2021 event, among a plethora of things, Apple announced iCloud+ as part of iOS 15/iPadOS 15, which brings more security and privacy protection features. One of them is Hide My Email, and it allows you to share a unique, random email address when signing up for a website or app to protect your personal identity. That said, the feature is available for paid users and only works when you choose the “Sign in with Apple” option. So, if you are looking to get Hide My Email from iCloud on Windows and Android for free, this guide will help you. In fact, Apple users who don’t want to subscribe to the paid iCloud+ service can also enjoy the services I mentioned below. So without further ado, let’s enter.
Get Hide My Email from iCloud on Windows and Android (2021)
I’ve included two services that allow you to hide your email ID, just like the new iCloud+ feature. Both services are non-limiting and you can use the random addresses anywhere, be it a webpage or an app.
How to Get Hide My Email on Windows
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Firefox Relay
Firefox offers a great service called Relay that does exactly what Apple’s Hide My Email promises to do. It is a free and simple service that allows you create new aliases, alias random IDs (up to 5), for your personal email address. And then it forwards emails sent to your aias to your personal ID without exposing your original email address. It even now supports forwarding attachments, but the file size is limited to 150KB. It’s a perfect replacement for Hide My Email on Windows and Android.
That said, keep in mind that Firefox Relay is currently does not support the “reply” function. Mozilla says it works to let you send an anonymous message without disclosing your personal email address. Additionally, if you are using the Firefox browser, you get an extension that makes it easy to generate and populate random email addresses. Chrome or Safari users can connect to Firefox Relay and generate a new alias and use it wherever they want.
1. First, go to Firefox Relay (visit website) and create an account using your personal email address.
2. If you are a Firefox user, you can also install the Firefox add-on for Relay (Free) then proceed to create an account.
3. Then you go receive a verification code on your personal email ID. So open your inbox and enter the code to confirm the address.
4. Now you will login to the Firefox Relay dashboard. To create a random address, click on “Generate a new alias ” and that’s all. Copy the random email address and you can use it on any registration form. You can create a total of 5 aliases.
5. If you are a Firefox user and have installed the extension, a Relay icon will appear in the email field. Click on it, followed by “Generate a new alias”, and a random email address will appear then and there in the text field. It’s cool, right? Now all emails will be forwarded to your personal email address without letting the website know your true identity.
6. Here is a brief demonstration. I sent an email using the alias and it managed to reach my personal inbox delivered through Firefox Relay.
7. If you want to stop forwarding emails from a particular alias, you can deactivate or delete it, and emails will not reach you. This way, you will have full control over your identity as well as your inbox.
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Simple connection
SimpleLogin is another service like iCloud’s Hide My Email that lets you host 15 aliases. It is an open source online service and also supports anonymous responses, which is great. The service offers both free and paid plans, but the free tier should suffice for most users. In the free version, you have no bandwidth limitations and have access to extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, support for custom domain names, and more.
1. To get started, go to SimpleLogin’s website and create an account using your personal email address. After that, confirm the email address through your inbox.
2. Next, install the Simple Connection Extension (Chromium / Edge / firefox / Safari) on the Windows 10 browser of your choice.
3. Now go back to the SimpleLogin website and click on “ Random alias to create a new random email address. Then copy the alias and you can use it anywhere on the web or in an app.
4. If you want to create a custom alias, click on the ” New custom alias” optional. Here you can select a domain of your choice and an alias prefix.
5. In the email field of a website you are trying to sign up to, you can right click and generate a random email address then and there. That’s it. Now all messages will reach your personal email address, but the website will not know your real identity. By using SimpleLogin, you can even reply to messages, and your identity will still not be exposed.
How to Use Hide My Email on Android
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Firefox Relay
Note that Firefox Relay doesn’t have an Android app, so you’ll need to use a workaround. First, generate the aliases in a web browser on your smartphone or computer. After that, add the aliases to your smartphone’s clipboard. Here’s how you can do it.
1. Copy the alias first and open the keyboard on your Android phone. In my case, I’m using Gboard, but clipboard support is also present on other keyboard apps, including SwiftKey. Tap the 3-dot menu and choose “Clipboard”.
2. Next, press the pencil icon and add the alias. You can add as many aliases as you want.
3. Now whenever you are on a registration page of any website or app on your smartphone, open the clipboard and paste random email address. This way you can hide your email and use random disposable addresses on apps and websites on Android.
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Simple connection
If you’re using SimpleLogin, you shouldn’t depend on any workaround. The company offers both Android and iOS apps, so you can easily hide your email using the generated addresses. Just follow the steps below:
1. First, go ahead and install the SimpleLogin application (android / iOS — Free, offers in-app purchases) on your smartphone.
2. Next, since you are already registered for a SimpleLogin account, login with your existing credentials. Otherwise, you can create one for free. Be sure to use your personal email address to sign up.
3. Now just copy random email address and paste it on any registration page. You can create up to 15 aliases for free with SimpleLogin.
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AddyManager (unofficial AnonAddy client)
Like SimpleLogin, AnonAddy is an open-source, freemium email forwarding service that works on both PCs and Android devices. However, the limiting part of the free version of AnonAddy is that it has a monthly bandwidth of only 10 MB, which runs out quickly if too many heavy emails are forwarded to your personal email address.
Still, if you want to use something like “Hide My Email” on Android, you can get AnonAddy’s unofficial client – AddyManager. It is open source and completely free, so that’s great. But keep in mind that the bandwidth limit will also apply to the Android app.
1. First, open AnonAddy’s website and Register to get access to a free account using your personal email address. You can do this on both your phone and your Windows PC.
2. Next, click on “ Settings in the upper right corner.
3. After that, scroll down and you will find an “API” section. Here, click “Generate a new token” and give the token a name.
4. After that it will give you a long string. copy it and don’t share it with anyone.
5. Now go ahead and install the Addy Manager App (android / iOS — Free) on your smartphone.
6. Launch the app and paste access token. Then, press “Connection”.
7. Well, you will successfully login to AddyManager. From here, you can create random email addresses (up to 20) by tapping the “+” button in the top left corner. You can then copy alias and paste it into the email signup field of a website or app.
Generate a random email address to protect your online identity for free
This is how you can get iCloud’s Hide My Email feature on Windows, Android, Linux, basically any device, and for free. The best part is that it will not only protect your identity, but also declutter your inbox. Simply disable forwarding for a particular alias, and bam, no more unnecessary newsletters and promotional emails. Anyway, it all comes from us. If you want to learn how to make FaceTime calls between iPhone and Android devices, follow our linked guide. And if you have any questions, let us know in the comments section below.
