Google is quietly rewriting the rules of Gmail, and this time it is not a cosmetic tweak or a new sidebar. The company is rolling out artificial intelligence inside the inbox, letting people change long‑standing addresses, and ripping out some legacy features that power users have relied on for years. For more than 2 billion people who depend on Gmail for everything from banking alerts to job offers, these shifts add up to a genuine turning point rather than a routine update.
The stakes are simple: if you do nothing, Google will still move ahead with its new defaults, from AI‑assisted writing to security tools that live outside Gmail itself. If you act now, you can decide how much automation you want, whether to lock in a new identity, and how to replace features that are going away before they break your daily workflow.
AI is moving into the heart of your inbox
Google is not just sprinkling artificial intelligence around the edges of Gmail, it is putting it directly into how messages are written, read, and triaged. Reporting on the company’s plans describes a future where the same technology that powers its broader Gemini project sits inside the inbox, helping people draft and refine emails, summarize long threads, and surface the most important messages first. In a short preview, Jan updates highlighted that Gemini would appear inside Gmail itself, turning what used to be a static list of messages into something closer to a smart assistant that understands context and intent.
Separate coverage of the rollout explains that Jan announcements from Google framed this as a choice for users rather than a forced upgrade. People are being asked how they want these tools to behave, including whether AI should proofread messages, suggest responses, or stay largely in the background. I see that as a crucial inflection point: the company is effectively asking billions of users to decide how much of their everyday communication they are comfortable outsourcing to machine‑generated suggestions, and that decision will shape not just productivity but tone, privacy expectations, and even how misunderstandings unfold at work.
You may finally be able to change that old Gmail address
For years, one of the most common frustrations I have heard about Gmail is that the address someone chose as a teenager or college student has followed them into professional life. Earlier coverage signaled that Jan brought a surprise: Google is now giving users the option to change their primary Gmail address without walking away from their existing account. That means the same inbox, the same history, and the same contacts, but with a new identity at the front door, something that would have been unthinkable when Gmail first launched.
Separate documentation, published in Dec, reinforces that this is not a throw‑everything‑out reset but a continuity move. It explains that the policy Will let people change their address while keeping their existing Gmail data, which is a critical reassurance for anyone with years of receipts, legal correspondence, or family archives in their account. According to that page, users can preserve their history “according to” the policy language, which turns this into a rare chance to clean up an old handle without losing the digital paper trail that now functions as a personal record of the last decade or more.
Legacy features like POP, Gmailify, and dark web report are on the chopping block
While the AI and identity upgrades grab attention, some of the most consequential changes are about what Google is taking away. In Jan, power users noticed that Gmail is ending POP and Gmailify support, a move that will break the setups many people use to pull mail from other providers into a single Google inbox. The same discussion notes that Google announced it is ending these features in Jan 2026, which means anyone who relies on Gmail as a hub for multiple external addresses will need to rethink their routing, whether that means forwarding from Outlook, switching to IMAP‑based clients, or consolidating accounts entirely.
At the same time, Google is dismantling a relatively new security feature that lived alongside Gmail but was marketed as part of its safety ecosystem. The company has decided to shut down its dark web report tool, which scanned for exposed personal data and alerted users when their information appeared in underground markets. One detailed breakdown notes that the feature will stop monitoring for new results on January 15, 2026 and that its data will no longer be available from February 16, 2026, as While explaining that Google wants to focus on other tools that help people stay safe online.
Additional reporting from Dec underscores how abrupt this feels for users who had just built the dark web report into their security routines. One account explains that the tool will stop scanning in January as Google shifts focus to other security tools, and it notes that the Dec coverage lists Author and Katrina Morgan with a Published time of 1:36, underscoring how closely the timeline has been tracked. Another analysis points out that feedback showed the tool, while informative, did not give people enough actionable steps, which helps explain why Google is steering users toward more integrated protections instead of a standalone dashboard.
Security is shifting from Gmail add‑ons to Google‑wide protections
As the dark web report winds down, Google is nudging users toward a broader security posture that lives across their entire account, not just inside Gmail. The company is emphasizing its password and identity tools, including the central dashboard at passwords.google.com, where people can review saved logins, check for reused credentials, and enable stronger protections like two‑factor authentication. I see this as a strategic pivot: instead of scanning the dark web for leaks after the fact, Google is trying to reduce the chances of a successful attack by tightening the front door with better password hygiene and sign‑in alerts.
That shift is also visible in how Google is talking about business email. Guidance on What is changing in Gmail From January 2026 explains that Google is introducing several changes for companies that route their business email, such as [email protected], through Gmail. The focus there is on authentication, deliverability, and compliance, which all tie back to the same idea: instead of bolting on one‑off tools like dark web report, Google wants organizations to treat security as part of how messages are sent and received in the first place, from SPF and DKIM records to stricter spam and phishing filters.
What every user needs to decide now
All of these moves add up to a simple but urgent set of decisions for anyone who relies on Gmail. Reporting from NEW YORK makes clear that Gmail is changing in a major way and that more than 2 billion users must decide how they want to handle AI features, address changes, and the loss of older tools they may have relied on since they first signed up. Jan coverage from NEW YORK stresses that this is not a background update that people can safely ignore, because the defaults will shape how messages are written, filtered, and stored going forward.
For business users, the stakes are even higher. Guidance on what is changing in Gmail From January 2026 notes that Google is updating how companies authenticate and manage their domains, which will affect everything from marketing campaigns to internal alerts. At the same time, the decision to shut down dark web report, described in Dec coverage that mentions people could Save up to $300 on related passes, shows that Google is reallocating resources toward tools it believes will have more impact. For individual users, the practical takeaway is clear: review your AI settings, decide whether to lock in a new address while keeping your history, replace POP and Gmailify workflows before they break, and move your security habits to account‑wide tools that will outlast this round of Gmail‑specific experiments.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
