Changing All Email Accounts From Comcast to Gmail
By Josh Fredman
Google offers an easy, fast and free email service called Gmail. With hundreds of millions of users it has grown into one of the largest email services in the world, and you can easily start using it in just a couple of minutes. If you like it enough that you want to switch away from your old Comcast email account, that’s easy too. You need only inform your contacts of the change.
Create a New Gmail Account
Step 1
Type “gmail.com” (without quotes) into your Web browser and click on the red “Create an Account” button in the top-right corner of the page.
Step 2
Enter your information in the sign-up form fields, including your name, desired username, password and demographic information. Optionally, you can also enter an alternate email address and your phone number to aid in recovering your new Gmail account if you ever get locked out of it.
Step 3
Fill in the security CAPTCHA field to verify that you are a real person.
Step 4
Read Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and click the checkbox that says “I agree.”
Step 5
Check or uncheck the box below the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, at your preference, to give or deny Google permission to use your account information to show you personalized ads instead of generic ads. Gmail is free to use and Google uses advertisements throughout its products and services to support itself. Generally, personalized ads will be more relevant to you than generic ones.
Step 6
Click the “Next Step” button to go to a page where you can optionally add a profile picture of yourself to your account. Click on “Add Profile Photo” if you want to upload a photo from your local hard drive. You can add a profile photo later, too.
Step 7
Click “Next Step” to go to the final sign-up page. If you like, write down your email address as Google shows it to you. Then click “Get Started” to go to your personalized Google homepage. Click the “Gmail” link in the black navigation bar at the top of the page to go to your new inbox.
Inform Your Contacts
Step 1
Log in to your old Comcast email account and write an email explaining that you are switching to Gmail. Include both your old Comcast email address and your new Gmail address in the email, to help people understand what information they need to update.
Step 2
Add your own new Gmail address in the “To” field.
Step 3
Add the email addresses of everyone you want to inform about your address change in the “blind carbon copy” or “BCC” field. Doing it this way will keep each person’s email address private from everyone else, which is proper Internet etiquette.
Step 4
Telephone any companies or other people whom you couldn’t email to advise them of your email account change. If you have family members who have a hard time using email, you might want to telephone them too, or send a handwritten letter, to make sure they get the message.
References
Tips
- When creating your Gmail address, you don’t have to enter your real name or personal information, such as your birth date, if you wish to remain anonymous, but for professional credibility you should at the very least use your real name.
- Your Gmail username, the name that will actually go in your email address, must be unique. Gmail will tell you whether the one you picked is unique or not. To create a unique username you can use letters and numbers, as well as periods to separate words. Pick a username that you’re willing to be associated with for the long term.
- Keep your old Comcast email account open for at least a year, and check it periodically. When you receive emails from people or companies from whom you wish to continue to hear, reply to them and give your new email address.
- You can’t close your Comcast email account if it is designated as the primary account. You will either have to designate the email address as a secondary account and then close it, or cancel your entire contract with Comcast and request that all your email accounts with them be deleted. You may contact Comcast customer service online (see Resources) or by phone at 1-800-934-6489.
Writer Bio
Josh Fredman is a freelance pen-for-hire and Web developer living in Seattle. He attended the University of Washington, studying engineering, and worked in logistics, health care and newspapers before deciding to go to work for himself.