Hey MB Tech Peeps- icloud custom domain - I am trying to understand it. It does not give you a 2nd inbox with that domain but rather it takes over our icloud domain. Is that correct?

@terrygrier but something sent to icloud.com would still hit the same inbox as my custom domain.... that is how I read this ...

@terrygrier Yes, I think you are correct. I switched to using a custom icloud domain recently and I just have one iCloud inbox for my custom domain and my @mac address I have had forever.

@RobertLominack Thanks for responding. That is what I thought. Then you could use the drop down to send for either I suppose ... Just trying to think through my use etc. thanks again!

@terrygrier @RobertLominack that’s right. You can choose to send from your custom domain, iCloud address, or (if you have it enabled) a random email address from Hide My Email. I like the flexibility and simplicity of a single inbox

@terrygrier Yes, that's right, both are listed as potential send from addresses.

@terrygrier I see others have chimed in, but yes you’re correct. And to add…you can have multiple custom domains at once as well.

@Mtt Thanks friend for the reply. I am still deciding but I use my icloud for my personal email - friends etc. deciding if I want my contacts blended.

@terrygrier Yeah, that is one area for contemplation. Same goes for Notes, Calendars.

@Mtt Do you think there is any tech advantage of using icloud servers vs hoover (my current domain provider) or say office365?

@terrygrier For me personally, yes. I'm fully in the Apple ecoysystem (including being an Apple One subscriber). I use the default mail apps. I even use their Password manager. I also love their security/privacy. If you're not fully in the ecosystem, I'd say it depends on specific needs.

@Mtt @terrygrier iCloud Keychain really is incredible at this point. Its system integration is so smooth, secure, and flawless, and after loading my TOTP codes into it I'm never going back to an external app. I understand the argument of less security keeping both 2FA codes and passwords in the same place, but honestly if someone hacks your passwords the codes are the least of your concerns. I'm still using FastMail as opposed to iCloud custom domains for email, but I'm going to play around with the latter using a spare domain and see how it goes.

@pimoore Agreed on iCloud Keychain. And I have my 2FA codes in there as well. I actually use iCloud for personal use with custom domain), but my work uses Fastmail. So I’m very familiar with both! In fact, I’ve been setting up all of the DMARC and BIMI stuff for the work email. Hoping that’s eventually allowed for personal email.

@pimoore @Mtt @terrygrier I’ve had a small number of problems using iCloud Keychain as a password manager but I suspect this is the fault of the sites themselves rather than Keychain’s. Some of them just don’t seem to like you storing their passwords. I certainly wouldn’t be inclined to pay for a third-party password manager.

@artkavanagh @pimoore @terrygrier Yeah, issues like that are on the website’s side. The form isn’t properly formatted and labeled. It’s an incredibly easy fix for the site developer, but it’s on them. But I have good news! One of the lead developers for the the security team at Apple made a shortcut that you can put on your home screen to directly access your passwords. I use it frequently!

@Mtt I've read talk about DMARC and various other settings, but I'll admit I'm out of my element understanding exactly what they do. If these are things available on FastMail but not on iCloud domain email, is that a reason to shy away from the latter?

@pimoore @Mtt @terrygrier I’ve also gone all-in with iCloud Keychain. And converted the family over too. That last bit is important. For non-tech people, using an external app is such a hassle they end up switching back to bad password habits because it’s just easier.

I also love the “hey, these password were compromised or duplicate” section in password management. Although I wish I could select multiple passwords and say “these are the same account, even though the domains are slightly different”.

@pimoore I’m a longtime 1Password user. Would you suggest iCloud Keychain over 1Password at this point?

@pimoore They are available on both. It’s actually handled in the DNS settings, so more a domain management thing than an email provider one. In very basic terms, properly setting up things (DMARC, DKIM, BIMI) validates your email address reducing its chances of being marked as spam and increasing its visibility. For example, your company logo would show in the users inbox even if they don’t have you stored in their contacts. For now, it’s restricted to entities with trademarked logos. I believe it’s been proposed to open it up further though. Once I understood the specifics, the setup only took a few minutes.

@KyleEssary I'm a longtime 1Password user, too. I switched over to iCloud Keychain for a bit when 1Password went Electron, but there were too many hassles. And I wanted to store credit card information, too, and there isn't a convenient, easy way to do that. So I went back to 1Password.

@KyleEssary If you’re Apple exclusive I’d say ICK is all you need, and is super secure. It also has passkey support as that starts rolling out, and you can add secure notes within the entries now too. For anything else a locked Apple Note can store license keys and such.

@Mtt Thanks for that explanation. It sounds like it’s not something personal email would ever really need.

@gdp @kyleessary I just store credit card info in Safari, which gets encrypted in iCloud Keychain.

@pimoore You’re right. It would basically be a pointless nerdy trick when it comes to personal email.

@Mtt Doing pointless things is what nerds are all about. 😂

@pimoore Which is why I would do it on day one! Ha

@pimoore Either that feature is relatively new or I completely missed it in my earlier try. I'll give it another go. I'm glad I saw this thread.

@gdp It’s super easy to setup; the first time you enter your card details on a site, Safari will ask if you want to save the details. Once you do it will come up in auto fill going forward. It doesn’t always work 100% with all fields depending how the site codes them, but that’s a rarity for me.

You also have to make sure in Settings > Safari > Autofill, you have credit cards enabled, which also enables the prompt to save. Underneath that setting you can review your saved cards, and even add one manually if you want.

@Mtt Thanks for the link to that shortcut — very useful

@artkavanagh Welcome. It works on Macs too!