1Password + Fastmail email alias usage/questions/improvements

TravelSD

I hope this is the right forum, but please move this post if not. I LOVE 1Password Family, and have been using it for ages. I just saw on my RSS feeds that 1Password is integrating with Fastmail for automatic aliasing of email addresses when signing up for new accounts, so that your real email address is NOT exposed. I think that's a fantastic idea, but I have some concerns about how 1Password implemented it given my brief reading about the feature.

I currently use an email aliasing forwarding provider called Burnermail.io. It works GREAT for my purpose, which is using custom email addresses for site, and being able to 'turn' an email alis off if it gets spammy or compromised. Obviously it's not integrated with 1Password. But here's what I like about burnermail.io that I think is missing from Fastmail:

1. I can optionally use custom owned domains with burnermail.io, including a few of their own built in generic domains. I ALWAYS opt to us my custom domain for the email aliases.
2. You can customize the 'username' part of the email alias, or just use something random. I ALWAYS customize the username so I know what service/site that the email alias is for. (e.g DeltaAirlines @ mydomain.com).
3. Emails sent to the aliases are forwarded at the SMTP level to a primary email account of my choice (currently on Microsoft 365 for Business), so I have a SINGLE inbox receiving all my regular and aliased emails. This is critical. I am under NO circumstances sending emails to another inbox for checking. Full stop.
4. Burnermail.io allows sending emails FROM the alias TO an external recipient, while hiding my true email identity. Sometimes you need to contact the site, but must use your aliased address.

As well as Burnermail.io works for me (and it's nearly perfect), I would in a heartbeat switch to 1Password/Fastmail if it met all four of my requirements above. Since I haven't tried Fastmail integration myself, I can't speak for sure which (if any) of my burnermail.io features that it has. If 1Password/Fastmail is lacking in any of the four use cases above, I hope 1password and Fastmail consider this post as a feature request for future enhancements. Should 1Password and Fastmail support all four uses cases above, I will immediately start a migration project away from burnermail.

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jqxfxiva

FastMail has all this things. Try first month free.

TravelSD

Ok, I went through the process of registering a custom domain, configured my Cloudflare DNS records, and signed up for a fastmail trial account. The service meets most of my criteria, HOWEVER 1Password does NOT let you manually enter custom email aliases. You ONLY have a 'generate' button, unlike 1Password passwords where you can both generate OR enter a custom password. So that's a show stopper for me. **Hopefully 1Password can modify the GUI to allow entering of a custom username for the alias domain. **

Also, the free account doesn't allow email forwarding rules to be saved/used. So I'm unable to test out that featured, so I'm not sure how I'd easily reply TO a masked email via the thick Outlook Mac client and keep my 'real' email address masked.

Jack.P_1P

Hi @TravelSD:

Thanks for your feedback on the new feature :chuffed:.

My understanding, though I'll have to check internally, is that Fastmail masked emails, whether generated through the 1Password extension or through Fastmail's web UI are always randomly generated, and cannot be configured to be mycustomemail@fastmail.com. However, you can select your domain to use with randomly generated usernames under Admin > Domains in Fastmail settings.

As for the forwarding rule aspect, I can't speak to that piece, so I'll have to check back and see what I hear. What I do see from reading through Fastmail's support article on masked emails is that from the web UI at least, you are able to reply to an email that was sent to one of your masked addresses using that masked address.

Jack

TravelSD

Jack, thanks for the reply. It does appear from the Fastmail side they only provide generated aliases as well. Unfortunately that's a total show stopper for me. I need the ability to optionally specify the email alias when combined with a custom domain account. For example, I always use an alias that is easy to remember for sites (e.g. Chase@mydomain.com, Delta@mydomain.com, etc.) so I can remember it. Generating aliases is fine, but when a customer has a custom domain, we really need custom alias field.

TravelSD

I did submit a feature request ticket to Fastmail to support custom aliases when combined with a custom domain. Whenever I hear back from them, I'll post an update. But as it stands right now, I can't continue past the free 30 day trial and will (unfortunately) have to stuck with burnermail.io for my aliasing needs.

jqxfxiva

You can do that, just enable catch-all.

Ben

@jqxfxiva

That would be an interesting workaround, but I believe you'd lose out on some of the masked email specific features such as the ability to turn addresses off (at least, from within 1Password). You wouldn't really be using the integration at that point.

Ben

Ben

@TravelSD

I'll put one in on our end too. :+1: I agree, it would be helpful to be able to tell at a quick glance which service the email is for.

Ben

ref: dev/projects/customer-feature-requests#934

TravelSD

Thanks Ben! Love 1Password and its relentless focus on user privacy and security. Love the integration and if/when we get custom aliases, I'll totally be a long time paying customer.

TravelSD

I got a response back from Fastmail:

Thanks for reaching out to Fastmail support! I'm happy to help you with this.

I appreciate you taking the time to let us know why using custom aliases with Masked Email would be helpful to you. I have shared your comments with our development team and filed a feature request on your behalf. (Please note that we're unable to offer any timeline as to if or when this feature could be implemented.)

If you have any further questions or problems, please let me know and I'll be happy to further assist.

Ben

Thanks so much for the kind words! 🥰Hopefully this is a feature we'll be able to collaborate with Fastmail on. :+1:

Ben

joeydriessen

Also giving a +1 on having a way to have your own "custom" masked-email. Some services a random one is fine. But some services you want a specific name for it. Would really love this feature.

It could also spare you from the awkward situation of is your email "hello.random5463@domain.com"?

TravelSD

I was on the Twitter 1Password audio discussion a couple of days ago. I asked 1Password and Fastmail this very question, of requesting custom usernames for masked emails when I have a custom domain registered. One of the 1Password guys seemed quite interested in the concept. A Fastmail rep also responded, and said they have a large amount of masked email feature requests from the community. But from her response, I wasn't hopeful that we'd see any masked email enhancements anytime soon. My 30 day Fastmail trial is up in a couple of weeks, and if I don't see some more concrete info on custom username roadmaps, I won't pay for the fastmail service. I currently use burnermail.io for masked email, and it's feature complete (to me) whereas Fastmail has a LONG ways to go to match their user experience.

Ben

:+1:

Ben

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ag_ana

If I was to put 1P between me and the mail server, I really would not care what the email address is! If I do need to known which email address is used for which domain, it is all in 1P: as things stand, I always have 1P with me (on my phone)

This is a good point @AndrewParker. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with the community! :+1:

zer0r00t

@TravelSD I wouldn't recommend using trademarked names at your domain. Michael Bazzell was once threatened to be sued because of it.

However I can give some insight into fastmail as I've been a customer for half a year now. I don't think they'll allow customizable masked addresses. Why? They already do. It's called aliases (max 600). And masked addresses don't count toward that limit. The only caveat is they have to be generated, and 1P does not integrate with aliases, only masked addresses. So yes, fastmail can do ALL 4 of what you want. You just have to make aliases manually and you can name them whatever you want, using their domains or your own, just not from inside 1P

TravelSD

@zer0r00t I'm currently using burnermail.io for my 200+ masked email addresses. It's purpose built for masking, and works great. However, it's not integrated with 1Password like Fastmail is. So I'd like an integrated solution that has all the mailburner.io features, but in a single interface....being 1Password. The Fastmail UI for managing lots of masked emails is also quite lacking when compared to burnermail. So until Fastmail provides robust masked email features on par with burnermail, it's a hard pass for me.