Apple has reversed part of a domain migration for Sign in with Apple. A June 15, 2026 developer news post said both new Sign in with Apple relay addresses and iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses would move to a single new domain, private.icloud.com. An August 24, 2026 update partly undid that: Hide My Email addresses are staying put, while Sign in with Apple addresses still move, later this year, with no specific date given.
Apple’s own August 24 post credits the change to developer input, saying it came “after further consideration and reviewing community feedback.” A platform decision reversed in public, on Apple’s own developer news feed, two months after it was announced, is unusual enough to be worth noting on its own.
The original June 15 announcement
Apple’s post, titled “New domain for Sign in with Apple and iCloud+ Hide My Email,” said Apple would unify both address types under the new domain, private.icloud.com, replacing privaterelay.appleid.com for Sign in with Apple and icloud.com for Hide My Email.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original announcement | June 15, 2026 |
| Reversal announcement | August 24, 2026 |
| Still moving | New Sign in with Apple addresses, to private.icloud.com |
| No longer moving | iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses, remain on icloud.com |
| Existing addresses | privaterelay.appleid.com continues to work and forward mail |
| Timing | “Later this year,” no specific date published |
What Apple’s August 24 update says
Apple’s update reads: “Starting later this year, new Sign in with Apple addresses, previously issued on privaterelay.appleid.com, will be issued on private.icloud.com. Existing addresses on privaterelay.appleid.com will continue to work and forward mail to users without interruption.” It continues: “After further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com.”
A timeline of one domain change, twice announced
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| June 15, 2026 | Apple says both Sign in with Apple and Hide My Email addresses will move to private.icloud.com |
| August 24, 2026 | Apple reverses course: Hide My Email stays on icloud.com; only new Sign in with Apple addresses move |
| Later this year | New Sign in with Apple addresses begin issuing on private.icloud.com, exact date not published |
What developers are told to check
Apple’s post asks developers to “ensure that their account systems, email validation logic, and allowlists accept addresses on the new private.icloud.com domain in addition to the existing privaterelay.appleid.com domain.” That is the only action item in the post; it does not extend to Hide My Email, since those addresses are no longer moving.
Why the reversal reaches subscribers, not only developers
Hide My Email is not a developer-only tool. Apple’s iCloud+ pricing page lists Hide My Email as one of four features included at every storage tier, from the $0.99-a-month 50GB plan up to the $59.99-a-month 12TB plan, alongside iCloud Private Relay and a Custom Email Domain. Keeping Hide My Email addresses on icloud.com, rather than moving them to private.icloud.com alongside new Sign in with Apple addresses, means every paying iCloud+ subscriber keeps the domain they already have, regardless of which of the five tiers they pay for.
The June 15 post asked developers to prepare their account systems for both address types moving together. Any allowlist or email-validation change a developer already made specifically for Hide My Email addresses on the strength of that post is no longer necessary under the August 24 update, even though the equivalent change for new Sign in with Apple addresses still is.
What Apple has not said
- Apple has not published a specific date for the Sign in with Apple migration beyond “later this year.”
- Apple has not said whether existing privaterelay.appleid.com addresses will ever be retired, only that they “continue to work.”
- Apple has not detailed what feedback specifically drove the reversal on Hide My Email.
- Apple has not said whether any other Apple ID or iCloud service is affected by the private.icloud.com domain change.
As of September 12, 2026, the reversal stands: Hide My Email stays on icloud.com, and only new Sign in with Apple addresses are due to move to private.icloud.com “later this year.” Our iOS 27 release date coverage and event recap cover the software shipping the same month this reversal was announced.
