dot in your Gmail address – The Tip and Trick

Dot or period or (.) whatever you call it, for the sake of writing this article I am gonna refer it as ‘dot’. Can you believe this ‘dot’ in your gmail id (gmail address) is really a meaningless one? Whaaat…? Yes. “johndoe@gmail.com” is as same as “john.doe@gmail.com” or “john.do.e@gmail.com” or “j.o.h.n.d.o.e@gmail.com”. Put the ‘dot’ wherever you want in your gmail ID (before the ‘@’ character), it will still be the same gmail ID regardless of the position of this ‘dot’. Gmail server just strips the ‘dot’ in any given gmail username or ID. Gmail is blind to this ‘dot’.

Then why include the ‘dot’?

The only reason behind this is to make your gmail id more human friendly. “i.am.john.doe@gmail.com” or “iamjohndoe@gmail.com” which one your prefer? Of course both are represents a single gmail account, but the former one is more readable than the later.  This ‘dot’ gives some sense to your gmail address. When telling to others. So hereafter, if someone share you their gmail address with ‘dots’ in it, don’t worry about recording those ‘dots’. For using this ‘dot’ in your own gmail address, you don’t have to register or do some changes in settings. Your free to use this ‘dot’ anywhere in your gmail ID. To believe yourself, test sending a mail to yourself with some ‘dots’ in your address. Apparently you can’t take anyone’s gmail ID by replacing the ‘dot’. For example “yourname@gmail.com” is already a taken ID, then you can’t get any of the combinations with ‘dot’ in them like, “your.name@gmail.com”, “y.o.u.r.name@gmail.com”, etc..