[HN Gopher] iCloud+ Custom Email Domains should be better
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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.
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(page generated 2022-02-27 23:00 UTC)