# Gmail is ending “Send as” in January 2027: what stops working, and how to keep replying from your own domain

_Google is removing Send as, POP fetching and Gmailify for addresses Google does not host. What that means if you read hello@yourdomain.com in Gmail, how to tell whether your setup is affected, and the four ways to keep replying from your own address._

Published 17 October 2026

A lot of people who own a domain read its mail in Gmail without paying for Google Workspace. Mail to hello@yourdomain.com is forwarded to a personal Gmail account, and a Gmail setting called **Send as** lets them reply from hello@yourdomain.com instead of from their Gmail address. Many free guides teach exactly this, usually with Cloudflare's free forwarding.

Google has announced that this ends in January 2027. This post explains what Google is removing, how to check whether your own setup depends on it, and the ways to keep replying from your own address, including the ones that cost nothing. We run imado, an email service for domains like yours, and it is one of those ways; it is named once, near the end, beside the others.

## What Google is removing

Google's notice is [Learn about changes to third-party email account support in Gmail](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/17101213). "Third-party" means any address Google does not host: a Yahoo or Outlook address, and also an address on your own domain when its mail is handled by someone other than Google. Starting in January 2027 (Google has not named a day), Gmail on the web removes three features for those addresses:

- **Send as.** Gmail will no longer send mail from an address it does not host. The [Send as help page](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370) carries the same notice.
- **Check mail from other accounts.** Gmail will no longer collect mail from another mailbox by POP, the older way one mail service copies mail out of another. Google stopped offering this to new users after March 2026, and [existing users keep it until January 2027](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719).
- **Gmailify.** Gmail's spam filtering and inbox tabs will no longer apply to mail collected from another account.

Google also says that between now and January it may refuse to set these features up for the first time. A guide that tells you to add a Send as address today may stop at the last step.

## What keeps working

- **Forwarding into Gmail.** Mail forwarded to your Gmail address keeps arriving, from Cloudflare, your domain registrar or anywhere else. Receiving is not affected; replying is.
- **Google Workspace.** Send as for addresses Google hosts, including Workspace addresses and aliases, does not change.
- **Gmail's phone app.** The Gmail app on Android, iPhone and iPad can still add a mailbox from another provider and send from it, because it connects to that provider directly.
- **Mail apps.** Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and other mail apps keep working with Gmail and with every other provider.

Both of these connect to a mailbox. If your address only forwards to Gmail and has no mailbox of its own, there is nothing for them to connect to; the next sections cover that case.

Mail you already collected into Gmail stays where it is.

## Is your setup affected?

Two places tell you. The first is in Gmail on a computer: open **Settings** (the gear), choose **See all settings**, then the **Accounts and Import** tab.

- Under **Send mail as**, every address other than your Gmail address is one you will no longer be able to send from in Gmail on the web, whichever server it sends through. Each one also names that server. If it is another company's server, not `smtp.gmail.com`, you already have somewhere to send from, and option 2 below is a short step.
- Under **Check mail from other accounts**, every account listed stops being collected in January.

The second place tells you where mail for your domain goes. Sign in where your domain's DNS records are managed, usually the company you bought the domain from or Cloudflare, and look at the records of type MX. They name the service that receives your mail:

- `route1.mx.cloudflare.net` and similar: Cloudflare Email Routing, which forwards and has no mailbox.
- `mx1.improvmx.com`: ImprovMX, which forwards.
- `smtp.google.com` or `aspmx.l.google.com`: Google Workspace, which is not affected.
- Your web host or another mail provider's name: a real mailbox, which you can keep and read another way.

If your MX records point at a forwarding service and Gmail lists your domain's address under Send mail as, you are in the group this change is aimed at. You will still receive every message. From January, your replies will come from your Gmail address.

**The forwarding setup, and what January changes**

1. **MX.** Your domain's MX record sends its mail to a forwarding service.
2. **Forwarded.** The forwarding service, such as Cloudflare Email Routing, sends it on to your Gmail address.
3. **Read.** The message arrives in your Gmail inbox.
4. **Send as.** You reply, and Gmail's Send as puts your domain's address on it.
5. **Answered.** The person who wrote to you sees your domain's address answer them.

_From January 2027:_

- Steps 1–3. **Receiving?** Keeps working. Forwarding into Gmail is not changing.
- Steps 4–5. **Replying?** Send as is removed, so the reply leaves from your Gmail address.

## Why a mail app alone is not the answer

Google's notice suggests using a desktop mail app with IMAP and SMTP, the standard ways a mail app reads and sends mail. That works when your address has a mailbox, because the mailbox's provider gives you a server to send through.

It does not work for the most common free setup. Cloudflare's forwarding has no mailbox and no server a mail app can send through. Gmail's own sending server, `smtp.gmail.com`, does not help either: when a message's sender is an address you have not added under Send as, Gmail replaces it with your Gmail address before sending. Today, adding hello@yourdomain.com under Send as is what stops that. When Send as is gone, we expect a mail app sending through `smtp.gmail.com` to have its replies arrive from your Gmail address. That is our reading of how Gmail's server behaves today, not something Google's notice says, so it may say more before January.

## Your options

Each option below keeps hello@yourdomain.com as the address people see. They differ in where you read mail and how you pay.

**What each way out keeps**

- Google Workspace:
  - ✓ Read and reply in Gmail, as today
  - ✓ Reply from your domain's address
  - ✗ Not free: billed per person each month
- Forwarding and a sending service:
  - ✓ Gmail stays your one inbox
  - ✓ Reply from your domain's address, in a mail app
  - ✗ Reply from Gmail on the web
  - ✗ Replies kept beside the conversation in Gmail
- A mailbox with a mail provider:
  - ✓ Reply from your domain's address
  - ✓ Work mail kept apart from your personal mail
  - ✗ Gmail on the web as your inbox

_Doing nothing keeps every message arriving; from January, your replies come from your Gmail address._

### 1. Move the domain's mail to Google Workspace

Workspace is Google's paid email for a domain, and Send as for Workspace addresses is not changing. You keep the Gmail screens you know. It is billed per person each month, and it becomes a separate Google account from your personal Gmail, so you sign in to two accounts. One Workspace account can hold more than one domain.

This suits you if Gmail is where you want to work every day and the price per person is fine.

### 2. Keep forwarding, and send from a mail app through a sending service

Leave your MX records as they are, so mail keeps arriving in Gmail. For replies, use a mail app (Apple Mail, Thunderbird or Outlook) with an outgoing server from a service that sends mail for your domain. Some forwarding services include one on their paid plans (ImprovMX does), so if you already forward with one of them, upgrading may be the whole change. You add the DNS records the service gives you, so receivers can confirm the mail really came from your domain.

This keeps one inbox and costs little. The catch is the daily routine: you read in Gmail and reply in another app, and your replies are kept in that app's Sent folder, not beside the conversation in Gmail.

### 3. Give the address a real mailbox with a mail provider

Change your MX records to point at a provider that keeps a mailbox for the address, and read and reply there. Most such providers also let you add the mailbox to the Gmail phone app, which keeps working after January. Providers differ in what they charge for: per person (Fastmail, Proton, Zoho's paid plans), per amount of mail stored or sent (Migadu, Purelymail), or as part of a subscription you may already have (iCloud+ supports a few custom domains). Read each one's pricing page with your number of domains and people in mind; the cheapest for one address is often not the cheapest for five domains.

This suits you if you are ready to read work mail somewhere other than your personal Gmail.

### 4. Do nothing

You keep receiving everything. From January, replies come from your Gmail address, and people who wrote to hello@yourdomain.com see a different address answer them. For a personal address that may be fine; for a business it usually is not.

## Before you switch

- **Set up the new way first.** Keep forwarding in place until the new setup has received a test message and sent one that arrived. Changing MX records moves all new mail at once, usually within an hour.
- **Fix your SPF record.** SPF is a DNS record that lists the services allowed to send mail for your domain. The usual Gmail guide added `include:_spf.google.com` to it. When something else sends for you, add that service's entry and remove Google's if Google no longer sends for you. A domain must have exactly one SPF record; a second one makes receivers treat both as broken.
- **Take a copy of what matters.** Mail already in Gmail stays there, but if you plan to stop using that Gmail account for work, export what you need with [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com).

## Where imado fits

imado is a version of option 3, made for people with a domain per project. You connect a domain you own, add the records we show you, and read and reply as hello@yourdomain.com from an inbox in your browser, on a phone or a computer. A few domains are free, and you pay for more domains or more storage rather than per person or per address ([pricing](https://www.imado.cloud/pricing)).

What it does not do yet matters for this change: there is no way to read imado in a mail app or in the Gmail phone app, and it cannot forward mail to Gmail. If keeping Gmail as your one inbox is what you care about, options 1 and 2 above are the ones that do that. If you want an inbox for your domain that is separate from your personal mail, [start here](https://www.imado.cloud/docs/get-started).

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Source: https://www.imado.cloud/blog/gmail-send-as-ends · Site summary: https://www.imado.cloud/llms.txt