[HN Gopher] iCloud+ Custom Email Domains should be better ___________________________________________________________________ iCloud+ Custom Email Domains should be better Author : domlaut Score : 60 points Date : 2022-02-27 19:14 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (domlaut.com) (TXT) w3m dump (domlaut.com) | woodson wrote: | The "This email is already in use with another Apple ID." issue | after the Apple ID was deleted is particularly annoying. Why | would they do that? | josephg wrote: | I doubt its on purpose. | | My mum's work email address changed and we changed the email | address associated with her apple ID. She had no end of tiny | bugs pop up - especially in the first couple of weeks after the | change. | | Apple's systems in general don't seem to cope well with email | addresses changing or being deleted. I think lots of software | engineers use email addresses as if they're an immutable | primary key. This just isn't the case. | woodson wrote: | The claimed one-year period from deletion to when it becomes | available for use as custom domain actually makes me think | that it is on purpose. I just don't understand what that | purpose would be. I would think it was a bug if it just | wouldn't let you use an email currently or formerly used as | another Apple ID, no matter how long ago. | abestic9 wrote: | I'm optimistic that Apple is working on most of these issues | (especially catch-all) right now and this is just representative | of their new offering. | | Like many things I've seen from Apple it will take a release | cycle or two (of 1-2 years per cycle) to bring in this arguably | basic functionality - as is tradition we'll groan about other | issues being held back in favour of fancy new features. | | I have no doubt they intend to fully compete with the email | services from Google and Microsoft. Following on from last year | we should see VPs taking us through the updates to iCloud+ | alongside device launches as it expands into a fundamental | service offering. | silvestrov wrote: | I would fear that Apple forgets about the feature after a few | years and then just drops it. This is not central to their | business and Apple trims such things very agressively. | | I would always buy a domain-email from somebody who has this as | their main business, and I would never couple my email to Apple | which could lock me out of my account if they think I "behave | suspiciously". | PeterWhittaker wrote: | Great resume. With luck Apple will address these: I've been | curious about moving my domains from Google and Apple seemed like | a good choice for me, but these would be show-stoppers for me as | well. | domlaut wrote: | Thanks! Appreciate the feedback, glad I was able to provide | some relevant insight. | | I'm hoping shining a light on these pain points turns some | heads at Apple so we end up with a better service and one more | good competitor in the hosted email space -- if you don't mind | it being Apple, of course. :-) | hughrr wrote: | Yeah valid complaints but none of them I've noticed myself. It | works really well for me. | | I suspect apple will be producing another subscription model or | extension to it to support these features once they've proven it | in production for a bit. | netfortius wrote: | If it's just for custom domain and email, then Infomaniak is yet | another choice, on a price to features, unlimited storage (for | email) and hosting country (privacy concerns with Apple and US, | anyone?!?) ratio solution. I have recently moved my custom domain | hosting from a more expensive service, to Infomaniak, and I got | the first email address for free (the main from my Google | workspace), to which I may add some more, if all works as | expected, in the next month or so. | rnk wrote: | I took a glance at their website. Does it do all the things the | original article mentioned? Like setup catchall email, route | email to specific addresses (like I have 3 people in my family, | Jane, Akbar, Jeff, jeff@mydomain.com goes to him, but | everyone@mydomain.com goes to all of us, yet | parents@mydomain.com goes to just the 2 parents). I want that, | plus it's part of the current hodge podge of email verification | standards so it won't be blocked as spam when I send from | there. | | That's the most valuable feature of goggle mail and domain | hosting to me. | miken123 wrote: | I would say another main issue is that while they ask you to | setup DKIM records, they do not actually DKIM-sign your emails. | Hence your mails may be more easily flagged as spam. Several | people have reported this to Apple, but AFAIK it still hasn't | been fixed. | domlaut wrote: | You're right -- this is something I missed mentioning. As of | right now, it's still only the web-based iCloud Mail that makes | use of DKIM. Using any other client/app will deliver your | emails unsigned. | | Would you mind if I updated the article crediting you for the | DKIM addendum? | rez9x wrote: | I use ProtonMail because of their good support for custom | domains. Their higher focus on privacy and security is nice, but | it has little to do with why I chose them vs competitors. The | only downside is you have to use the ProtonMail app or website on | mobile, because of the way they do mailbox encryption. | dan_wood wrote: | No mention of the 3 existing email address limit per user on this | article makes me sad... | jws wrote: | That's what stopped me from using iCloud+ for the family email | domain. It was the easy winner except for that. | domlaut wrote: | This was something I was hoping to get around with using a | separate relay like ImprovMX or Cloudflare's Email Routing -- | that'd allow you to have a bunch more assuming you didn't need | to use them for outbound emails -- discovering issue #2 in the | process. And issue #6, if you did want to use them for outbound | emails :-) | theginger wrote: | My biggest problem with it is I cannot sign up to iCloud+ because | I don't have an apple device or a windows pc I could install the | iCloud app onto. I suspect if I was to borrow one trying to use | the mail on an android device would be fairly miserable making it | not worth it but would be nice to have the option to try without | needing to jump through hoops. | lokimedes wrote: | Valid points, but considering the price of this service, it | leaves me with little complaints. | h4waii wrote: | iCloud+ seemed like a great value proposition for people | migrating from Workspace, but there are quite a few hangups. | Seems like Microsoft hits a good middle ground. | | Completely off topic, but why do people think having a sticky | header indicating how far "through" an article is, is worth | disrupting the content for? | shimms wrote: | We just went down the rabbit hole of trying to migrate to | Microsoft 365 Family with custom domain. You (officially) need | to move your domain to GoDaddy, which was unfortunately a | blocker for us as they don't support our domains TLD. | | From what I read DKIM also isn't offered on Family which is | disappointing. Business plans get expensive quickly when you | want Office apps as well. | mig39 wrote: | I know they really try to sell you on GoDaddy, but it's | possible to set it up with using another registrar. | domlaut wrote: | Valid point -- sorry the header is getting in your way. Out of | the available theme for Ghost I found this one taking away the | least from the actual content - I'll look into getting rid of | the header bar as traffic subdues not to break anything now :-) | | Microsoft does hit a great middle ground -- but there's still | far too little players IMO. Would enjoy if we also had Apple as | a contender -- especially if they'll remain as big on their | service businesses as they claim. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-27 23:00 UTC)