Google just made it easier to escape your old Gmail username

It’s been an outrageously long wait, but Google will finally allow Gmail users to change their email addresses.

Late last year, a support page in Hindi hinted that changes to Google’s account name policy were on the way, but now it’s official. The company posted the news to X, but noted that only U.S. users will be offered the new flexibility for now. To make the change, head to your email settings options and click “change Google Account email.” Your email history and saved data will remain tied to the account, so don’t worry about losing anything. 

Users can change their Google account names across products like Gmail, Photos, and Drive, but really, email is the front-facing account people have been begging to change for ages. When you update your Google account name, your old handle will become an alias, so you can still use it to communicate over email. If you really wanted, you could revert back – but after this long of a wait, you’re probably ready to move on anyway.

Gmail users eligible for a name change can pick a new username once per year up to three times total over their account’s lifetime. While limited, that policy is much more generous than being stuck with KrazyKat10@gmail.com over the course of your decades-long professional career.

Google spends plenty of time and energy infusing its software with AI, but the company is notorious for letting its core products languish without basic quality of life updates. Gmail now offers hit or miss AI summaries at the top of the inbox, meanwhile essential products like Google Calendar lack common sense features like letting you add events using natural language. Given the company’s uneven track record of updates for some of its most important consumer-facing products, the Gmail news is a breath of fresh air — even if it’s one we really had to wait for.

Google’s policy of only allowing users a small handful of Gmail accounts for each phone number makes sense from a security perspective, but it pairs terribly with its policy of locking people into the username they choose from the jump. Whether you’ve remarried, changed your business name, or just outright hated what you picked to begin with, there are myriad reasons you might want to ditch an old Gmail address. Now, you finally can.

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