What is Apple Private Relay?
Apple’s Private Email Relay lets users who sign in with Apple hide their real email address. Instead of sharing their personal email, they get a unique address likeabc123@privaterelay.appleid.com that forwards to their real inbox.
These are real, deliverable email addresses — not disposable or temporary emails. However, emails will bounce unless your sending domain is registered with Apple.
This applies specifically to Sign in with Apple’s Hide My Email feature. It is separate from iCloud+‘s Hide My Email, which is a broader privacy feature available since iOS 15 that generates random addresses for any context, not just app sign-ins.
Why emails bounce
If you’re seeing bounces when sending to@privaterelay.appleid.com addresses, it’s likely because Apple doesn’t recognize your sending domain. Other common reasons include:
- The user deleted their Hide My Email address from their Apple settings
- The user exceeded their daily limit of 100 emails for that relay address
- Your domain’s SPF or DKIM records are misconfigured or missing
- Your sender email address is not registered with Apple
How to fix bounces
Register your sending domains with Apple
Go to the Apple Developer Portal and navigate to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → Services → Sign in with Apple for Email Communication → Configure.Click the + button in the Email Sources section and register your sending domain (e.g.,
acme.com) and its MAIL FROM subdomain (e.g., send.acme.com). You can enter multiple domains as a comma-separated list.You must register and validate every domain and subdomain you send from, including return-path domains.Register your sender email addresses
In the same Email Sources section, add all email addresses you send from (e.g.,
hello@acme.com, support@acme.com).If you don’t own a domain configured for email, you can register individual sender email addresses instead.Registration limits
Apple enforces limits on the number of email sources you can register:| Account type | Maximum email sources |
|---|---|
| Individual developer | 32 |
| Organization | 100 |
Bounce notifications
You can receive notifications when emails fail to deliver through the relay. In the Apple Developer Portal, account owners and admins can enable delivery failure notifications under the Sign in with Apple for Email Communication settings.Important notes
- Only the app that the user authorized via “Sign in with Apple” has permission to send to their relay address.
- After registering domains, allow a few minutes for Apple to process the changes before retesting.
- Bounced relay addresses should be handled like any other bounce — don’t keep retrying delivery to addresses that consistently fail.