Gmail Addresses Ignore Dots

Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash

This is interesting. I keep getting emails from a group of people that have mistakenly entered my email address in their CC field. When I look at it though, it is not my address, it is missing the period in between my first and last name. When I was looking at this, I saw a link that said, oddly enough, "Yes, this is you." Upon clicking the "Learn More" link I found this information:

Am I receiving someone else's email? Gmail doesn't recognize dots (.) as characters within a username. This way, you can add and remove dots to your username for desired address variations. messages sent to your.username@gmail.com and y.o.u.r.u.s.e.r.n.a.m.e@gmail.com are delivered to the same inbox, since the characters in the username are the same.

Keep in mind that hyphens (-) and underscores (_) can't be used in a Gmail address. Also, usernames are case insensitive, so it doesn't matter if you enter upper case or lower case letters.

If you created your account with a dot in your username and you wish you hadn't, you can change your 'Reply-to address.' To change your reply-to address:

1. Click 'Settings' at the top of any Gmail page.
2. Enter your username@gmail.com without a dot in the 'Reply-to address' field.
3. Click 'Save Changes.'

When you log in to Gmail, you need to enter any dots that were originally defined as part of your username.