Did you know that if you have a Gmail email address, you effectively have infinite email addresses?
How you ask?
The email address you use for your account is your main email address. But you can extend it by using a “+” sign after the section before “@gmail.com”. Sounds much more complex than it is.
An example will help you understand much better.
Let’s say you signed up to Gmail as john.doe@gmail.com.
That is your main email address. However, if you sign up for a service with “john.doe+1@gmail.com”, all emails from that service will still land in your normal inbox. The amount of characters behind the “+” is unlimited (as far as I know, never tested it out), and you can use numbers or letters.
“But why do I need unlimited emails” you may ask.
Fair point. If you want to organize yourself, it can be quite useful. You could for example create different emails for finance, shopping, travel, work, etc.
- john.doe+finance@gmail.com
- john.doe+shopping@gmail.com
- john.doe+travel@gmail.com
- john.doe+work@gmail.com
Each of these emails can then be easier categorized in your inbox. You could create labels for each of these email addresses which are labeled automatically.
Another use case is to find out which company is passing on your information to third parties. For example, for every newsletter you sign up for you could create a separate email address:
If you happen to get unwanted emails from john.doe+newsletter2@gmail.com, you know who to complain to.
A final use case is for testing your own websites. Imagine you are running an online shop and want to see the user journey as a customer. Instead of creating new email addresses every time, you can now use the same one. But by adding the “+XYZ” to your email address, you trick your store into thinking you are a new customer as it is considered a unique email address.
Much easier to test any features or changes on your website that way.
