The email account you created in college may be cringeworthy when you’re an adult.
But now you don’t have to live with the embarrassing email addresses, and you don’t have to start a new one either.
Google has rolled out the option to update an account user name, or as the company explained, “the part before @gmail.com.
It started introducing the option to change the user name last year, “to help your account grow with you,” and is now available in all of the United States.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the new feature on X.
2004 was a good year, but your Gmail address doesn't need to be stuck in it.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 31, 2026
To say goodbye to v0t3f0rp3dr02004@gmail.com or mrbrightside416@gmail.com (or whatever you were into at the time), go to your Google Account settings and choose any name available. You'll keep your old…
As The New York Times explained, when Gmail was launched in the early 2000s, it was just email. Now it’s used for everything since there "has been a seismic change in the way the public interacts with the internet."
How do you make the change?
Go to your Google Settings and select personal info, then select email, then Google Account email. If you see “Change Google Account email,” click it and pick a new user name. Messages sent to the old email address will still go to the account.
Users can create a new username once every 12 months, the company said.
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