Google Workspace Email Alias Setup

Google Workspace email alias setup is pretty simple. But you might be wondering what is an email alias and why you might need one. Essentially it's an alternate email address that operates using your existing gmail inbox. And that's exactly what I explain in this video. I go through five scenarios where having an email alias would be helpful and then I share my screen to show you exactly where to go to create your email alias.

▶︎

Did you know that if you have a Google Workspace, maybe you call it a Gmail account, that you can set up multiple email addresses all going to one inbox? That is exactly what an email alias is and in this video I'm going to explain maybe why you might want an email alias and then I'll show you exactly how to set it up in your account.

I'm Katherine Forbes founder of website design agency Designing the Row, and in the past month and a half or so I've had multiple clients come to me and need help with email aliases so that is why I am creating this video. I have five scenarios for you as to why you might need or want an email alias, mostly inspired by my clients.

Scenario #1: Username “change”

Client number one… ultimately she set up a username that she didn't want as her email address. When you create a Google workspace account you create a username and that becomes your email address so if you set up a username say for example, for me that is “Katherine,” the email address for that account will be “katherine@whatever-the-domain-name-is.com.” So she set a username that she ultimately didn't want as her email. But, instead of scratching that and starting all over we just created an email alias so she could keep that existing account and just have a different email address.

Scenario #2: Create an appearance of a team of people

Scenario number two was for a new music group and they're just getting started they don't have a manager or a booking agent or a big team yet but they wanted the appearance of that. Instead of creating a whole bunch of different email accounts that they would have to log into separately to check, we created one info@domainname.com email address and then created a couple aliases like booking@domainname.com - I can't remember what the other ones were now but you get the point. If you want to create the illusion of a team but really you're the one checking everything, email aliases are going to be the way to go.

Scenario #3: Consolidate email accounts

Scenario number three hit my inbox yesterday and that's why I'm sitting down to create this video. They have had a couple email addresses set up through Google Workspace for a couple years and they want to close one down and just keep one. Well, okay let's close down this one and then we will set it up as an alias under this account so you're not paying for two separate emails anymore, you're just paying for the one. That way, if anybody still is emailing that address or if you still even want to use it you can but you're using it under one inbox and one account.

Scenario #4: Temporary email address

Scenario number four would be if you need an email address for just a temporary amount of time. Maybe you're collecting applications for something? Maybe you're running an event? I don't know, but maybe you just need a temporary email address. If you already have a Google workspace account this would be a great way to accomplish that without any extra cost or hassle of having to log in somewhere else to check these emails.

Scenario #5: Name change

Scenario number five is actually something I did myself. My personal email address is my first and last name so when I got married and my last name changed, I needed a new email address. But, instead of creating a whole new account and abandoning the email address that I already had, I just created an alias. That way I didn't have to email people to say “new wife, new email…” I just started using the alias when I emailed people. Honestly sometimes I still accidentally send emails from the the old name, but you know it all goes to the same place that's why we create aliases, right?

A few more things about email aliases…

A couple more things I want to share with you before I share my screen and show you how to set this up.

1. If you are looking for some sort of private email address that will be hidden or whatever, this is not that. This is used as a regular email address. People will have no idea that it's an alias. It looks like an email, acts like an email, it is an email address this is not anything anything private.

2. I've also mentioned this, but I just want to say it outright - it will not have its own login so it will not have its own password. You log into your email address or your email inbox account as you normally do and you will have access to use to send receive emails from this new alias.

3. If you want to send an email from an alias just compose your email as you normally would, click the little toggle down on the from email address, and you will see your alias or aliases pop up there.

4. You can actually create up to 30 email aliases under one Google workspace account… so have at it! That should cover you for whatever you need.

5. I just want to give you a warning when you do set it up, give it about 24 hours just to officially “sink in” before you run with it.

Google Workspace Alias setup instructions

1. Head over to admin.google.com (not your inbox, this is not a setting in your email this is under your username, so admin.google.com)

2. Click “create an alternate email address (or email alias)” in the User panel

3. Type in the user (or which email address) you want to create this email alias for

4. Once selected, click “Proceed”

5. Once that loads, it will drop you right to the alternate email addresses section

6. Click to type in your new desired email address

7. Once you are done, just hit “Save” and you can then see your alternate email address list

Again, just give your changes about 24 hours to set in and you are good to go. Just as one more reminder, you will access these email addresses through your existing email account… so the email that you just put in to create an alias for, you will log into your email for that account and you will find access to these new aliases.

I hope this was a helpful tutorial! I have a whole separate video on just setting up your Google Workspace account from zero (via Squarespace). If you haven't already done that I will link to that here, otherwise I will see you in the next one!