Factodus

Gmail drops “Send mail as” for other addresses in January 2027: what you can do

By Factodus · updated · Deutsch · Español

If you read your Yahoo, Hotmail, GMX, iCloud or own-domain mail in Gmail and reply from that address, this is the change that affects you. In January 2027 Google removes three things for addresses that are not Gmail (Google’s announcement):

  • “Send mail as” for third-party addresses, on the web and in the mobile apps;
  • Gmailify, which applied Gmail’s spam filter and categories to linked accounts;
  • POP fetching, which pulled mail from another account into your Gmail inbox on the web.

Until then the features keep working, but new setups may already be refused. “Send mail as” stays for other Gmail addresses and for Google Workspace aliases.

Short version. Free: forward your mail to Gmail if you only need to read it there; use the Gmail mobile app or a desktop client such as Thunderbird to reply from your address. Paid: move an own domain to Google Workspace, or use a tool that brings your address back into Gmail on the web.

What still works for free

Reading. Most providers can forward incoming mail to any address. Set forwarding at Yahoo, GMX, iCloud or your domain host, and new mail keeps arriving in Gmail without POP. Only replying from the original address is affected.

The Gmail mobile app. Google keeps support for third-party accounts in the Gmail apps for Android, iPhone and iPad: you add the account by IMAP and send from it on the phone. It is a separate inbox, not an alias of your Gmail.

A desktop mail client. Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail connect to your provider by IMAP and SMTP and send from your real address, with your Gmail account in the same window if you like.

Your provider’s own webmail or app. The plainest option; you just lose the single inbox.

If the address is on your own domain

Google Workspace. If you move the domain’s mail to Workspace (from about $7 per user per month), the address becomes a Google address and “Send as” keeps working with Workspace aliases.

Keep your host, add a sending service. Some people keep forwarding to Gmail and send through an SMTP service such as Amazon SES or SMTP2Go. Gmail on the web won’t use that SMTP after January 2027, so you need a client that does, or a tool like the one below.

Staying in Gmail on the web

There is no built-in way to keep a non-Google address in the web From field after the change. Third-party tools that offer it differ in one important point, which Google itself warns about: whether your mail and passwords go through someone else’s server. Before you install one, check:

  • where the message is sent from: your computer, or the tool’s relay;
  • where your mail password is stored;
  • what Google permissions the extension asks for.

AliasSend, which we are building, puts your address back in Gmail’s From field and sends through your own provider from your own computer, with a small open-source Windows app, so nothing passes through our servers. It also puts a copy in Gmail’s Sent folder. It isn’t out yet: there is a waitlist on the AliasSend page.