Why YSK: A Google account is not the same as a Gmail account, and you don’t need to create a new Gmail email account to have a Google account.
I’ve spoken to many different people who equate a Google account to a Gmail account. This is not the case. Unfortunately, this leads to many new Gmail accounts being created, solely because they think that they need to have a Gmail in order to access other Google services.
Here’s the gist:
A Google account gives you access to Google services like Sheets, Docs, Calendar, Drive, Photos, Gmail, YouTube, etc.
A Gmail account is an email service account with Google. When you create a Gmail, you also create a Google account by default.
However, the reverse is not true. If you create a Google account (with a non-Gmail email address), it does not automatically give you a Gmail account.
If you already have an email account with another provider, you can use that as your Google account.
For example: Let’s say your email is jane@example.com. Rather than creating jane@gmail.com, you can opt to create a Google account with jane@example.com and avoid creating an account for Gmail.
Unfortunately, Google tries to get you to create a Gmail account during the process of creating a Google account. (see image).
It’s important to differentiate this and prevent people from registering new Gmail accounts unnecessarily.
For example: Let’s say your email is jane@lemmy.com.
YSK: These domains are reserved for use in examples:
Why YSK: Using these instead of made-up domain names reduces the chance of confusing readers, eliminates the possibility of phishing attacks, and avoids sending unwanted traffic to made-up domains if they happen to belong to someone.
What’s the harm in creating the gmail account with your google account?
Yes, but what does change when I register both accounts with a Gmail address?
Can we use Google email service with a custom domain email? As far as I am aware, it requires some Google service suite.
Also, what happens when you lose access to the custom domain? Do they verify the domain ownership periodically, or do you just own it?"
