Brave Browser Version 1.94 Adds Built-In Email Aliases to Shield Users’ Real Addresses

There’s a small but genuinely useful new trick tucked inside the latest version of the Brave browser — and if you’ve ever handed over your email address to a website and immediately started receiving spam, you’ll understand why it matters.

Brave, the privacy-focused browser that competes with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, has rolled out a feature called Email Aliases in desktop version 1.94. The idea is straightforward: instead of typing your real email address into a sign-up form, you generate a temporary alias — a made-up forwarding address — that passes messages on to your actual inbox while keeping your real address hidden from the website entirely.

What Email Aliases Actually Do

Think of it like a PO box for your inbox. The website sees the alias. Your real address stays private. Any emails sent to the alias land in your inbox as normal, so you don’t miss anything. But if that alias starts attracting spam, or if you decide you no longer trust the service you signed up to, you can simply delete it without touching your main email account.

Brave announced the feature on 27 August 2026. TechCrunch covered it the following day, describing it as Brave “one-upping” Chrome by baking a privacy tool directly into the browser itself rather than requiring a separate app or extension.

The feature shows up automatically when you click on an email field on a website, offering to generate an alias on the spot. If the prompt doesn’t appear, a right-click option is available as a fallback.

Five Free Aliases — and a Catch

At launch, each user gets five free email aliases. That’s a deliberately modest starting point. Brave has been candid about why: running a mail forwarding service costs money, and the company says it’s starting small while it works out the operational side of things. A paid Premium tier and a mobile version are both planned, though Brave hasn’t confirmed pricing yet.

To use the feature, you’ll need a Brave Account — which itself requires a primary email address for the forwarding to work. So there’s a trade-off: you’re trusting Brave with your real address to protect it from everyone else.

Brave’s privacy policy for the feature states that the company does not read the contents of forwarded emails beyond standard spam and virus filtering, and does not log email content or sender information for metrics and debugging purposes. Any limited logs kept for debugging are retained for no more than 14 days, according to the policy. If a message fails to deliver temporarily, Brave will attempt redelivery for up to 24 hours before deleting it.

How It Compares to What’s Already Out There

This isn’t an entirely new concept. Apple’s Hide My Email feature, available to iCloud+ subscribers, works on a similar principle. Services like SimpleLogin and AnonAddy have offered alias forwarding for years, often as standalone apps or browser extensions.

But building it directly into the browser is the point. You don’t need to install anything extra or remember to switch between tools. It’s just there, in the browser you’re already using.

Peter Snyder, Brave’s Vice President of Privacy, said: “We want to make privacy the default, not something you have to go out of your way to set up.”

That philosophy has shaped most of Brave’s feature decisions — the browser already blocks adverts and trackers by default, and has previously launched a built-in VPN and firewall for mobile users.

Privacy Trade-Offs Worth Knowing

It’s fair to ask: does this actually make you more private, or does it just shift who holds your data?

Brave argues it’s a net gain. Websites collecting email addresses for marketing purposes — or selling them to third-party data brokers — won’t get your real address. That limits the trail of personal data scattered across dozens of sites. And since each alias is unique, it’s easier to spot which service leaked or sold your details if spam starts arriving on a specific alias.

The requirement to hold a primary email address for forwarding does mean Brave has that information. But the company’s broader business model — built on privacy as a selling point rather than advertising revenue from user data — gives it a different set of incentives from, say, a free webmail provider.

Whether that’s enough reassurance will depend on how much you trust any single company with your information.

What This Means for Kent Residents

For anyone in Kent already using Brave on their desktop, the Email Aliases feature is available now through version 1.94 — you’ll need to set up a Brave Account first before creating any aliases. It’s a practical tool for reducing inbox spam and limiting how widely your personal email address spreads across the web, especially useful if you regularly sign up for local services, retailers, or community newsletters online. The planned Premium tier may carry a monthly cost, though Brave hasn’t announced UK pricing yet.