For developers · Checked 30 September 2026

Sign in with Apple private relay email and the new private.icloud.com domain

Short answer: when a user signs in with Apple and chooses to hide their email, your app gets a relay address that forwards to their real inbox. Those addresses have ended in @privaterelay.appleid.com; Apple says that starting later this year, new ones will be issued on @private.icloud.com. Existing addresses keep working. Make sure your sign-up, email validation and allowlists accept private.icloud.com as well, and that your sending domain is registered with Apple, or your emails will not reach these users.

Private relay domains your system should accept

From Apple Developer News of June 15 and August 24, 2026 and the Sign in with Apple documentation, read 30 September 2026. The August update replaced the June plan: Hide My Email is not moving.

DomainUsed forStatus
privaterelay.appleid.comSign in with Apple addresses issued so farKeeps working and forwarding
private.icloud.comNew Sign in with Apple addressesIssued starting later this year
icloud.comiCloud+ Hide My Email addressesStays on icloud.com

What changes and what to update

Apple’s instruction is to make your account systems, email validation logic and allowlists accept addresses on private.icloud.com in addition to privaterelay.appleid.com. Look for anywhere the domain is hard-coded: sign-up forms that reject unknown domains, fraud or disposable-email filters, code that detects relay users by suffix, CRM segments and suppression lists at your email provider. Apple’s June notice also asked email service providers to update domain-based filtering and routing rules that list relay domains. A relay address is fixed per user and per development team, so a user’s existing address does not change.

Register your outbound email or nothing arrives

To email relay users, register your outbound email domains, subdomains or addresses as email sources for the Private Email Relay Service in Certificates, Identifiers and Profiles. Organizations can register up to 100 sources, individuals up to 32. Apple requires every registered domain to pass SPF, DKIM or both, and recommends both. If you send through a provider, register the domain or address your emails actually come from. When the relay detects undelivered emails from your account, it notifies your team’s Account Holder and admins by email.

How the relay behaves

Each relay address routes to one of the user’s verified Apple Account emails and works whether or not the user is signed in on a device or has your app installed. It is the same for all apps from your team and different for other teams. There is a limit of 100 emails a day per relay address, counting your messages and the user’s replies. Replies come back through the relay, and your address is rewritten to something like sales_at_example_com_…@icloud.com. Users can manage the address in Settings, Sign in with Apple, and if they stop forwarding, the relay rejects your emails.

Keep the email and listen for changes

Sign in with Apple returns the user’s name and email only the first time they sign in to your app; later sign-ins, even on other devices, do not include them again unless the user disconnects and reconnects. Store them on your server at first sign-in. Register a server-to-server notification endpoint, TLS 1.2 or later, to receive email-disabled and email-enabled when forwarding changes, consent-revoked when a user stops using Sign in with Apple for your app, and account-deleted when they delete their Apple Account. For account deletion inside your app, see the account deletion requirement.

Where Censuus fits

Reaching your users by email keeps them; being found brings new ones. Censuus ranks apps by the visits they draw, and adding your app is free on the List my app form. Placement comes from traffic and sponsorship: apps climb on the visits they draw, and a sponsor can pay to rise higher.

Frequently asked questions

What is a privaterelay.appleid.com email address?

A private relay address created by Sign in with Apple when a user chooses to hide their email. Mail sent to it is forwarded to the user’s real address.

What is private.icloud.com?

The new domain for Sign in with Apple relay addresses. Apple says new addresses will be issued on it starting later this year, while existing privaterelay.appleid.com addresses keep working.

Is Hide My Email moving to private.icloud.com too?

No. Apple’s August 24, 2026 update says iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com.

Why are my emails to Apple relay addresses not delivered?

Usually because the sending domain or address is not registered as an email source for the Private Email Relay Service, or it does not pass SPF or DKIM. The user may also have turned off forwarding, or the 100 emails a day limit was reached.

Can I get the user’s real email from a relay address?

No. The relay hides it by design. You can email the relay address, and the user’s replies come back through the relay.

Guides for app developers

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