How to Create Email Masks Inside Any Signup Form With the Maskmail Extension

Every signup form asks for the same thing: your real email. Type it in once, and you become downstream of every newsletter, breach notification, and broker list that company ever touches.

The Maskmail browser extension takes that step out of your hands. Instead of typing your real address, you generate a fresh masked one right inside the form. Mail still lands in your normal inbox. The site only ever sees the mask.

This guide covers the full flow: installing the extension, connecting it to your Maskmail account, and creating your first mask on a real signup form. It also covers smart per-site reuse, custom domains, and how to kill a mask the moment it starts attracting spam.

What the extension does

The Maskmail extension is a small companion to your Maskmail account. It does three things:

• Generates new masks in one click. Click into any email field on any site, and a small Maskmail popup opens next to the field with a ready-to-use masked address.
• Reuses masks per site. If you already have a mask for a site, the extension hands it back to you (or fills it silently) so you do not accidentally create a second account.
• Copies new masks to the clipboard. Every new mask is copied automatically, ready to paste into a confirmation field or anywhere else on the page.

Everything works on top of your existing inbox. Mail sent to a mask forwards to your real address, and replies go out from your normal mail app. The site you signed up with never sees the real one.

Step 1: Install the extension

The extension runs on Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, including Brave, Edge, Opera, Arc, and Vivaldi.

1. Open the Maskmail homepage and scroll down to the browser extension section.
2. Click "Get the browser extension". This sends you to the Chrome Web Store listing.
3. Click "Add to Chrome" and confirm the permissions.

Once installed, pin the Maskmail icon to your toolbar. In Chrome, click the puzzle-piece icon to the right of the address bar, find Maskmail in the list, and click the pin next to it. Pinning keeps the extension one click away on every page.

Step 2: Connect your Maskmail account

The extension needs to know which account to create masks under. You only do this once.

1. Click the Maskmail icon in your toolbar. The popup opens with "Sign in to Maskmail".
2. If you are not already signed in, click "Open login page", log in on maskmail.io, then return to the popup.
3. Click "Connect account". The popup flips into its connected state and shows your account email under "Connected".

To disconnect later, open the popup, click the three-dot menu in the top right, and choose "Disconnect". You can reconnect at any time.

Step 3: Create your first mask

There are two ways to create a mask. Pick whichever fits the moment.

Option A: Generate from any signup form

This is the flow you will use most often.

1. Open a signup or checkout form in any tab.
2. Click into the email field the way you normally would.
3. The Maskmail popup appears anchored to the field. The site's domain shows at the top, with a "Generate mask" button below it.
4. Click "Generate mask". A new masked address is created on the spot, dropped into the field, and copied to your clipboard.

That is it. Submit the form as usual. Any confirmation email the site sends arrives in your real inbox, forwarded through the new mask. The site itself never learns your real address.

If the form has a "confirm email" field next to the email input, paste from the clipboard. The mask is already waiting there.

Option B: Generate from the toolbar

Sometimes you need a mask outside a web form. Maybe you are pasting one into a desktop app, or sending it to a friend in chat.

1. Click the Maskmail icon in the toolbar.
2. Click "Generate mask".
3. The new mask appears in the popup with a copy button beside it.

The mask is copied automatically the moment it is created, so you can switch straight to wherever you need it and paste.

Picking a domain

If you have added one or more custom domains to your Maskmail account, the popup shows a "Domain" dropdown above the "Generate mask" button. Choose the domain you want the new mask to use.

This is handy when you keep different domains for different contexts: one for shopping, another for newsletters, another for anything work-adjacent. Each mask still forwards to the same real inbox, so the routing stays invisible to you.

If you have not set up a custom domain yet, the dropdown is hidden and masks fall back to the default Maskmail domain. You can add a custom domain later from your dashboard.

Smart reuse: never sign up twice

Ever signed up for a site, forgotten about it for six months, and then created a second account by accident? The extension is built to prevent that.

When you click into an email field on a site you already have a mask for, the popup offers your existing mask instead of generating a new one. Click it to fill the field. The site sees the same address it already knows and lets you log in or recover the original account.

You can take this further with auto-reuse:

1. Open the toolbar popup.
2. Click the three-dot menu, then "Settings".
3. Toggle "Auto-reuse masks" on.

With auto-reuse on, the next visit to the same site fills the existing mask silently, with no popup prompt. New sites still get the regular popup so you can decide whether to create a fresh mask.

Searching and reusing recent masks

The toolbar popup keeps a "Recent" list of every mask you have created or reused. Each entry shows the masked address and the site it belongs to.

• Search: type in the search box to filter by site or address.
• Copy: click any recent mask to copy it to your clipboard.

This is the fastest way to look up a mask you need on a different device, paste one into a desktop app, or read one out to a support agent over the phone.

Managing masks after they exist

Every mask you create from the extension also shows up in your dashboard at maskmail.io. From there you can:

• Read the full forwarding log for any mask, including which messages arrived and which bounced.
• Pause a mask temporarily without deleting it.
• Disable a mask permanently in one click. Once disabled, the address stops forwarding entirely.
• Add a note to each mask so future you remembers which signup it belongs to.

If a mask starts collecting spam, your real email stays out of the picture. Open the dashboard, find the mask, and disable it. The leak is contained to that one address. Every other mask, and your real inbox, stays untouched.

Troubleshooting

The popup does not appear when I click into an email field. The extension is intentionally opted out on a small set of sites where it would get in the way, including maskmail.io itself. Everywhere else, focusing an email field should bring up the popup. If nothing happens, click the toolbar icon to confirm the extension is still connected to your account, then refresh the page.

The mask was generated but not filled into the field. A few signup forms use custom email controls that the extension cannot write into. The mask itself is still created and copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it by hand. It also appears in the popup and in your dashboard.

I want to use the extension on a different account. Open the popup menu, click "Disconnect", sign in with the other account on maskmail.io, and reconnect. The extension is bound to whichever account is currently signed in.

FAQ

Is the Maskmail browser extension free?

Yes, the extension is free to install. It uses your Maskmail account to create and manage masks, so you need an active account behind it. Maskmail comes with a 14-day free trial of the full product.

Which browsers does it support?

Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, including Brave, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Arc, and Vivaldi. Firefox and Safari versions are on the roadmap.

Does the extension see my real email or my passwords?

No. The extension only handles masks. It does not read passwords out of your forms, and your real email lives in your Maskmail account, never in the extension itself. Authentication runs through a session token issued by maskmail.io.

Can I create masks without the extension?

Yes. You can create masks from the dashboard at maskmail.io on any device and in any browser. The extension is a convenience layer that brings mask creation into the page where you actually need it.

What happens if I uninstall the extension?

Nothing happens to your existing masks. They keep forwarding mail as long as they are enabled in your dashboard. The only thing you lose is the in-page popup. You can reinstall the extension at any time and it will reconnect to the same masks.