AdGuard Mail: email alias and temp email service from the makers of the adblocker

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 20, 2024
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AdGuard announced AdGuard Mail today. The new product is free at the time of writing and designed to improve email privacy.

It is available as a web-based version as well as apps for mobile devices and Windows and works similarly to services such as  Firefox Relay, SimpleLogin, or AnonAddy.

At its core, AdGuard Mail supports two main features:

  • Email aliases -- These forward emails to another email address. Use them to sign-up for sites, apps, or services without revealing your real email.
  • Temp email addresses -- These are temporary email addresses that you may use for the same purpose.

The main differences between the two is that aliases forward while temp emails display the received emails directly in the AdGuard inbox.

Using AdGuard Mail

The service is easy to use. It is free at the time of writing, but this may change in the future. Nothing has been announced at this time though in this regard.

Visit the main Adguard Mail website to get started. There you may hit the install button to install an app on your device or use the web-based version.

It is necessary to create an account. This does link the first email address as well, which AdGuard uses to forward emails from aliases.

Aliases

Creating an alias is simple. Select Aliases and hit the plus button to do so. Aliases are created automatically, but you may use the generate button to create new word combinations.

There is only one domain available at the time. You may add a name and description to the alias, which may be helpful keeping an overview.

The two other options allow you to add more recipients, email addresses that get the forwarded emails, and tags for better management in the actual mailbox.

Temporary emails

You can generate one temporary email for use on the web. This remains active until you hit the generate button again.

Until then, all received emails are shown in the interface. You can read and interact with these emails there.

All existing emails will be deleted when you generate a new temporary email. Only one temp email can exist at a time.

Remaining features

Other than that, you may add more recipients -- real email addresses - to AdGuard Mail. This allows you to pick multiple recipients for aliases, or use different recipients for certain aliases.

There is also a statistics section, but it shows little information at the time.

First Impressions

AdGuard Mail is a new product. It is easy to use and available for all major platforms. That is good.

Downside right now is that it does not support features that comparable solutions, such as SimpleLogin or AnonAddy do support. Here is a short list of features that are missing currently:

  • Use different domain names for aliases or temp email.
  • Support for custom domain names.
  • Reply to emails using aliases / temp email accounts.
  • Support for security features such as PGP encryption or two-factor authentication.

It is possible that AdGuard is working on these features already. It could introduce them as part of a paid plan in the future.

Closing Words

Using an email alias service is favorable, as it will protect your email addresses from spam, scams, and other unwanted content.

AdGuard's solution is basic, but also easy to use and setup. It is a good option if you are just getting started and do not want to pay a subscription fee. Then again, the mentioned alternatives also support free plans.

Do you use email alias or temporary email services? What is your take on the new AdGuard Mail service? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Summary
Article Name
AdGuard Mail: email alias and temp email service from the makers of the adblocker
Description
AdGuard has launched Adguard Mail, a new email service that lets users create aliases and temporary emails to improve email privacy.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Tachy said on December 21, 2024 at 6:05 pm
    Reply

    I don’t know wether to be offended or amazed.

    I love Spam (the stuff in the picture) but boy is it bad for your health.

    Is the image inteneded to be humorous or is there some deeper connection to the story?

    1. Tom Hawack said on December 22, 2024 at 10:25 am
      Reply

      Maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE :)

      The missing feature ‘Reply to emails using aliases / temp email accounts.” is one that prevents me from using any similar service.

      1. Tachy said on December 23, 2024 at 6:26 am
        Reply

        @Tom

        I was actually going to watch but all I got was “Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot”.

      2. Tom Hawack said on December 23, 2024 at 11:00 am
        Reply

        @Tachy, try then

        https://www.youtube.com/embed/anwy2MPT5RE
        or
        https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/anwy2MPT5RE

        Depending on user’s environment workarounds need to come to rescue. Personally I’ve installed a rather complex (but not complicated) set of redirections in order to have YouTube videos display instantly with no ads.

  2. Sebas said on December 21, 2024 at 6:02 pm
    Reply

    Yes and then you Media Player Classic – BE. A good media player but still built by Russian developers. Are there any backdoors?

    1. Klaas Vaak said on December 26, 2024 at 9:30 am
      Reply

      @Sebas: oh dear, Russian developers and backdoors, how lucky we are to have Gmail that is 100% with guaranteed no backdoors, no sir, no Western email provider would do such a horrible thing.

  3. VioletMoon said on December 20, 2024 at 4:47 pm
    Reply

    I’ve been using AdGuard Mail, Temp email addresses, for a long time. Easy, no signup, and the addresses usually work. Simple Login sounded interesting until I discovered I have to make yet another account.

    Any others people use that are effective?

  4. kobuta said on December 20, 2024 at 2:54 pm
    Reply

    I love Spam Bacon the best. :)

  5. Joe said on December 20, 2024 at 1:39 pm
    Reply

    Unlike SimpleLogin with Adguard Mail i can’t respond from an alias, a feature that i like and use for example when i need to contact the support of a service.

  6. Jody Thornton said on December 20, 2024 at 12:27 pm
    Reply

    Can I use AdGuard on an IMAP client? Thunderbird, or the like?

  7. InsaRa said on December 20, 2024 at 10:51 am
    Reply

    It’s like addy.io (ex anonaddy)

  8. 45 RPM said on December 20, 2024 at 10:19 am
    Reply

    Your omitted the Sponsored Post part.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 20, 2024 at 12:48 pm
      Reply

      No, this is not a sponsored post.

      1. 45 RPM said on December 20, 2024 at 3:31 pm
        Reply

        @Martin
        It reads like one. And I very much enjoy your posts and the site, but this one made me feel let down.

        Notable about AdGuard:

        1) Wikipedia flagged their page for basically being an ad.

        2) Nobody knows where they are. They’re incorporated in Cyprus, but so are about million companies to evade taxes and box up their actual location under secrecy laws.

        3) I’d bet good money they’re Russian and do all this free stuff as it collects mountains of data for the FSB.

      2. Tom Hawack said on December 23, 2024 at 2:47 pm
        Reply

        @45 RPM, I agree with @David’s comment replying to yours.

        For one, here on Ghacks, sponsored articles are clearly mentioned as being so.

        For two, and I guess this is the most important given it concerns an increasing skepticism regarding the viability of information, considered either as fake either as commercially driven or biased.

        I believe It is true that fake or commercially driven information exists, seems obvious, but the problem is as always when skepticism becomes a mental rule so to say : it’s not because an article highlights a product that it means it is a hidden sponsored article. I’ll dare an analogy with a man’s compliments to a lady when the lady believes that the guy must have hidden ideas to be so kind :) He may have, as he may not have.

        Are we facing an era where being kind is the expression of either weakness or hypocrisy not to mention dishonesty, where being fresh if not rude reflects deep honesty (when we know that this is approach is already integrated in advertisement psychological policies, to a certain extent though : they won’t insult you rudely but they will, politely).

        And, above all, no evidence no trial.

      3. David said on December 23, 2024 at 12:26 pm
        Reply

        I think we should bust chops when and only when the ads are truly sponsored. I don’t know what made you think this was a sponsored post. Was it the part about it being a half-finished product? Was it the part about missing features? C’mon.

      4. boris said on December 20, 2024 at 6:51 pm
        Reply

        Great info. I just removed AdGuard on my phone and replaced it with Rethink DNS. I should have checked the origin of the company that has full control of my phone’s Internet traffic. AdGuard is not required to state its origins and affiliations, but I do not hot have to blindly trust them if they do not disclose it or hide it. I am not saying that all companies that originated from Russia are bad. I do have two Windows programs from Russian developers, but I do not let them access Internet.

      5. Brad said on December 20, 2024 at 4:43 pm
        Reply

        @45 RPM

        Correct. It’s not uncommon for Russian companies to set up headquarters in Cyprus to pretend they’re not Russian. AdGuard were one of these companies – as quite a few AdGuard developers were still based in Moscow when I looked into it a couple of years ago.

        AdGuard tried to play it down and stated that they are a Cypriot company and have Ukrainian developers as well, however the reality is those Russian developers are still under Putin’s control whether they like it or not.

        Personally I try to avoid American companies as much as possible too. I would go with someone like Tutanota instead.

      6. boris said on December 21, 2024 at 10:03 am
        Reply

        There are two reasons Russian companies headquarter in Cyprus.

        Reason #1) Tax evasion. That started two decades ago.
        Reason #2) Sanctions evasions and be able to move funds between Russia and the West.

        I still can not believe that I missed this one. When people talk about Russian IT industry is usually Yandex, Kaspersky or World of Tanks, but rabbit hole is much deeper.

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