Hide Your Gmail with Google’s New Shielded Email

Most websites you visit on the internet, more often than not, need you to sign up. There’s often no guarantee that your information, let alone your email, won’t be compromised. To hide your email address from apps and services, Google is now working on an email forwarding alias it calls “Shielded Email.“

Shielded Email Will Automatically Suggest to Use an Alias When You Open a Sign-Up Page

This alias lets you generate a random Gmail address that forwards all incoming emails to your personal inbox. It’s similar to Apple’s “Hide My Email“ feature, which is exclusive to paying iCloud+ subscribers. On Android, however, the feature will be available for free.

Shielded Email was first spotted in late 2024 integrated with Android’s Autofill, alongside the Google Password Manager, which becomes available when you try and sign into new apps on your phone. It uses that email to send any messages received directly to your email. It also has the option to stop forwarding to control spam, if any.

Now, if you come across a sign-up page that requires your Google account, Shielded Email will automatically prompt you to use an alias if you wish to keep your personal email and the data associated with it private.

With the increasing cleverness of scams and phishing emails, Google has doubled down on security measures in its last few Android releases. It’s rolled out features like Live Threat Detection, Spam Call Warnings and is now working on an Advanced Protection Mode. Recent leaks also indicate that Google may add an inactivity reboot as well to make it a bit more difficult for hackers to access your phone’s data.

This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.