Apple IDs Can Now Be Switched From a Third-Party Email Address to an Apple Domain

Apple has made a significant update to the process of changing the email address associated with your Apple ID as starting today, users can change their Apple ID from a third-party email service such as Gmail or Yahoo to an Apple domain.

According to a new support document from Apple, the company has long allowed new customers to sign up for an Apple ID, which is used to authenticate and manage a user’s Apple account across services ranging from iTunes to the online Apple store, using third-party email addresses like those from Google and Yahoo.

Until now, users only had the ability to change their Apple ID email from one third-party email service to another. This means that if you had an Apple ID associated with your Gmail account, you had the ability to change it to Yahoo address and vice versa; what you could not do was to change an email of third-party service to that of Apple’s domain.

However it seems that Apple has decided to change that, as the company is now allowing users to change their third-party email addresses to that of Apple’s own domain. This means that if you have an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com email address that you would prefer using for Apple ID, you can now make the switch easily.

On the support page, Apple outlines the steps you must take in order to make the switch. The company notes that you must sign out of “every Apple service and device that uses your Apple ID” prior to changing the email address associated with your account. From there, you can follow these steps:

Use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

  1. Go to Settings > [your name] > Name, Phone Numbers, Email. 
  2. Next to Reachable At, tap Edit, then delete your current Apple ID.
  3. Tap Continue. Enter the Apple ID that you want to use.
  4. Tap Next.

Use your Apple ID account page

  1. Go to appleid.apple.com and sign in. 
  2. In the Account section, click Edit. 
  3. Under your Apple ID, click Change Apple ID.
  4. Enter the Apple ID that you want to use.
  5. Click Continue. 

If you enter a new Apple ID that ends with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com, you will see a message to confirm. When you change your Apple ID to an Apple domain, you can’t change it back to a third-party email account, and your former Apple ID that ends with a third-party email becomes an additional email address for your account.

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