Every control on the page, and what it actually does
The page is small on purpose, and most of it is one field. Here is each part, what it changes, and the thing about it that is not obvious.
The address field
Two editable halves with an @ between them. Both can be changed, and the address is live as you type — there is no “save”.
| Half | What it does | The non-obvious part |
|---|---|---|
before the @ | the username, anything you like | cosmetic — it never affects whether mail arrives |
after the @ | the domain, chosen from the list | decides everything: delivery, and whether a site accepts the address |
The domain list
Click the domain and a searchable list opens. Typing filters it, which matters because the list is long. Two things worth knowing:
- A country-coded domain is often accepted where a generic one is not. An address that does not look foreign to a local service gets through more often, for no better reason than that.
- Whether a domain is currently accepting mail is checkable.The domain debugger answers it in seconds rather than by trial.
Copy, and Share / QR
Copy puts the current address on the clipboard — the reliable way to move it, since a mistyped address is a message you will never see. Share offers the same address as a link and as a QR code, which is the fastest way to move a mailbox from a computer to a phone: scan it and the same inbox opens there.
Generate new address
Produces a fresh random address. The previous mailbox does not disappear — it carries on existing for its usual few days, and typing its address again reopens it. Nothing is lost by pressing this, but nothing is closed either.
Refresh
Reloads the page. You should rarely need it: messages appear on their own, pushed as they arrive. It is there for the case where the connection dropped silently — which the connection indicator next to the address status will already be telling you.
Recent
Addresses you have opened before, and groups of tabs from earlier sessions, so you can get back to a mailbox without remembering what you typed.
Settings
Sound and popup alerts, how often they may fire, second-level domains, and the confirmation prompt before anything destructive. Each switch explained: the settings guide.
The status line under the address
Two pieces of live information that are easy to overlook:
- Whether the address is working, together with how long the domain has been up. If this is not green, no amount of waiting will produce a message.
- The connection indicator. Green means messages are being pushed to the page as they arrive; if it says offline, that is why the page looks frozen.
The message list
Messages appear by themselves — no refreshing, no timer. Opening one shows the sender, the subject and the full body; attachments are listed underneath with a warning if the file type is one commonly used to deliver something harmful. Nothing is stripped or disinfected, so the warning is the thing to read.
Light and dark
Three positions: follow the system, always light, always dark. It is a display setting and nothing else — it does not affect the mailbox or what is stored.