Handling Apple "Hide My Email" in Your Login System: Best Practices
Apple’s Hide My Email feature allows users to create randomized relay email addresses (like abcd@privaterelay.appleid.com ) when signing up for apps. These relay addresses forward to the user’s real inbox, keeping their primary email private. While great for privacy, this creates a challenge for app developers: 👉 Should relay emails map to the original account, or should they create entirely new accounts? Let’s explore the scenarios and best practices. 🔹 The Core Problem When a user interacts with your platform, they might: Sign up with their normal email (e.g., user@gmail.com ) Later sign in using Apple’s relay email (e.g., abcd@privaterelay.appleid.com ) Or vice versa — start with the relay email and later try logging in with their normal email. If your system only treats email as the identity key, this results in duplicate accounts , lost history, and poor user experience. 🔹 Key to the Solution: Apple’s Unique Identifier ( sub ) Apple provides a stable, unique ident...