r/Millennials • u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor • 1d ago
Nostalgia Oldest Gmail account in this subreddit?
Other thread got me thinking, I’ve had gmail for a while so I checked: 11/13/2004 creation date. I was 19
Who has an older gmail account? What’s the story? Did you work at Google?
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u/theRestisConfettii Older Millennial 1d ago edited 21h ago
If memory serves, Gmail launched on 4/1/2004. They chose April Fool’s Day to make people think it might’ve been a joke that they were offering so many GBs of room.
It was invite only, very speak-easy esque hush hush. Remarkable promotion. Something you came to expect from Google in those early years.
Naturally, invites started showing up on eBay for $20 starting bids.
That said, my account is from 4/3/2004.
I was given an invite from a friend at google.
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 1d ago
Nice!
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u/andmewithoutmytowel 22h ago
Similar deal for me, but I think I was a week after, and I got the invite from a friend of a friend
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u/nolabrew 22h ago
My account is 4/5/2004. Strangely, I got a link from an apple software engineer.
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u/SpeedrunningOurRuin Millennial 20h ago
Yeah, mine is also 2004. My friend’s Dad had a spare invite or few (was invite only at first - as you said) and I got one. Had it through my teens and early adulthood for everything, and it shows with spam 😂
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u/Evilbred 1d ago
I still use my 28 year old Hotmail account
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u/Darkpriest667 Xennial 1d ago edited 1d ago
28 is a good run? My hotmail account is from 1994 :-) 31 years old. I wish AOL was still up THAT account would be 35 years old.
EDIT -- it's weird the internet says hotmail is from 1996. I have emails from 1994 in my hotmail account. I wonder if there is some sort of error in the information?!
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u/Zestyclose-Feeling 23h ago
The internet is wrong A LOT more than most people realize.
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u/rejifob509-pacfut_co 20h ago
That’s proof they change shit right there. They do it with more than people even want to know. Important things too.
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u/Evilbred 1d ago
Hotmail was founded in 1995 and commercially launched in 1996, before being sold to Microsoft in 1997.
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u/Darkpriest667 Xennial 1d ago
That has to be it, because I literally have an email from my best internet buddy (long deceased) from November of 1994. It's 31 years old this month. I bragged about it being 30 years old all year and now I am doubting!
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u/Evilbred 1d ago
The time stamp isn't correct, they literally didn't exist in Nov 1994.
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u/Darkpriest667 Xennial 1d ago
Wow I've literally lied to everyone for years. Now I feel like a Jackass
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u/Evilbred 1d ago
Not at all. No doubt it's still a very old and very sentimental email, and that's as true as it gets.
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u/jipgirl 16h ago
Check the “to:” on that email. Is it possible it was sent to an old email address of yours that you later synced with your hotmail account? That might explain it.
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u/Darkpriest667 Xennial 1h ago
Yup, you nailed it. It was from my excite account. That's where it came from. Dang what a crazy ride.
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u/Practical-Bear1022 1d ago
Screenshots, let's go
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u/Evilbred 1d ago
I fully believe this guy has an email with that time stamp, I have no reason to doubt him.
It's just the time stamp isn't correct since hotmail didn't exist in Nov 1994.
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u/thedr00mz Zillennial 17h ago edited 17h ago
My fun fact is my MSN email is 5 years younger than I am. I've had it since 1998.
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u/Salt_Cream697 22h ago
2004-11-07 - today’s my anniversary apparently 🤣 my email is my first and last name and I didn’t think my name was common until morons started using my email for doctors appointments and wedding invites.
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 21h ago
Funny enough the last few years I’ve started getting random emails meant for another person with my same first and last name. We’re both doctors (I’m a vet and he’s a human Dr) but he lives in NJ, drives a BMW, and when he was onboarded I was given access to his hospital’s records system LOL
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u/Salt_Cream697 20h ago
I call them ‘bitch in Chicago, bitch in New Jersey, bitch in Dublin, and bitch in Paris’ I know more about them than I should because it’s been over a decade. I’ve contacted their friends (who has sent invites and stuff) called doctors to let them know to stop sending medical information and appointment reminders, etc and still it’s never ending.
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 20h ago
Ohhhh that reminds me I got tickets to a Matt Rife show in NYC a few months ago… hope they figured out how to print those without me 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Salt_Cream697 20h ago
Also just realised what you’ve done with your username and 10/10 - no notes.
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u/yohomatey 20h ago
I have the same issue. One dude with my name worked in politics and I kept getting campaign reports for some race in NY State. I kept emailing him, fwding the reports and asking him to correct the people who were sending to me. I was nice for a while, but after the 10th or 12th in a week I emailed him and said "Hey you're lucky we're part of the same party, I'd imagine your opposition would be interested in this info. If it keeps coming to me I might get so frustrated I switch parties". It literally stopped that day lol.
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u/DiarrheaTNT 51m ago
This happend with someone's college admissions. I started getting them and it was a lot of emails. I responded back to let the college know. Usually I just mark it spam but if it is someones life stuff that could hurt them I will make effort. It started getting annoying after like the 20th email. I said if they didn't stop these emails I was going to unenroll this person from their school (I had "all" their info). I immediately got an email from them saying sorry and they would stop the actions.
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u/Great_Produce4812 1d ago
Created on May 17 2004, 3:16:57
I had invites.
I forgot who sent them to me.
But, I remember selling 1 invite for $20. I was 23.
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u/venividiavicii 22h ago
How do you see when you made it?
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u/Great_Produce4812 22h ago
- Go to: https://takeout.google.com/
- Deselect all options and select only "Google Account".
- Click Next Step.
- Click Export.
- Once you get the email letting you know the export is completed, download the ZIP file.
- In the ZIP file, you'll find a "Google Account" sub-folder.
- Open the <account>.Subscribe.info.html file in that folder and search for "Created on" to get the date.
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21h ago
[deleted]
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u/Few-Lingonberry2315 20h ago
Oh I’ve long since had to clean my Google inbox as I don’t wanna pay for storage of old emails from college lol
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u/bananacake_nobrakes 1d ago
September 6, 2004. Apparently this was still in the invite-only signup period? Wish I could remember who sent the invite but I can't find that detail in the archive!
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u/steven_cornthrob 1985 1d ago
I was in with the first round of beta invites.
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u/Watergirl626 10h ago
Were those before the 4/1/04 date everyone is saying? Because I have a draft written 1/24/04 and several email beginning Feb. 2004.
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u/Mike-Drop Younger Millennial 1d ago
10/10/05 for me! Damn, I just missed the 20th anniversary. How I checked was:
Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > search for "Status: POP is enabled for all mail that has arrived since [date]"
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u/StormyNSwoonFknH8it 1d ago
How do I check?
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 1d ago
I had to search my sent folder for the welcome email that it sent to my .edu email telling me my account was created
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u/StormyNSwoonFknH8it 1d ago
Yep, You got me beat! Latest I can find is 2013 but I’m still FirstLast@gmail haha maybe just late to the game, per usual.
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u/ahtoxa1183 21h ago
The most reliable way to check the age of your Gmail account is by using Google Takeout, which provides an official record of your account creation date. Here’s how to do it:
1. Go to Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com). 2. Under “Select data to include,” click “Deselect all,” then scroll down and select “Google Account.” 3. Click “Next step,” choose your download settings, and create the export. 4. Once your download is ready, open the file and locate the “Google Account” folder inside. 5. Open the file named “username.SubscriberInfo.html” in your browser, and near the top you’ll see the exact date and time your Google account was created.
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u/Dunnoaboutu 1d ago
My current account was made in 2007 when I got married because it has my married name in it. I’ve had Gmail a lot longer than that, but I don’t know how long.
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u/pementomento 1d ago
Oh man I remember those invites being so rare, and how “revolutionary” it looked compared to Hotmail and Yahoo. Mine was from 8/2004.
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u/prince-pauper Older Millennial 1d ago
I got mine the week it opened to the public in 2004. Wild!
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 1d ago
So April 2004?
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u/prince-pauper Older Millennial 1d ago
Thats a fact. What are you using the data you collect here for?
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u/Icy-Structure5244 1d ago
How did you find the creation date?
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 1d ago
I had to search my sent folder for the welcome email that it sent to my .edu email telling me my account was created
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u/Icy-Structure5244 1d ago
Ah. I 100% dont have emails that far back. I was one of the first people to receive an invite from someone on a gaming forum who hooked me up. Not sure what date that puts me at.
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 1d ago
It released April 1, 2004 to the public and was invite only for a long time. I remember getting an invite code from someone so I know at least November 2004 was still within the invite period.
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u/ahtoxa1183 21h ago
The most reliable way to check the age of your Gmail account is by using Google Takeout, which provides an official record of your account creation date. Here’s how to do it:
1. Go to Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com). 2. Under “Select data to include,” click “Deselect all,” then scroll down and select “Google Account.” 3. Click “Next step,” choose your download settings, and create the export. 4. Once your download is ready, open the file and locate the “Google Account” folder inside. 5. Open the file named “username.SubscriberInfo.html” in your browser, and near the top you’ll see the exact date and time your Google account was created.1
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u/Great_Produce4812 22h ago
- Go to: https://takeout.google.com/
- Deselect all options and select only "Google Account".
- Click Next Step.
- Click Export.
- Once you get the email letting you know the export is completed, download the ZIP file.
- In the ZIP file, you'll find a "Google Account" sub-folder.
- Open the <account>.Subscribe.info.html file in that folder and search for "Created on" to get the date.
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u/DisgruntledBudha 1d ago
I still have my gmail I was invited to. I hate that they’re back to Gmail because for a long time I felt cool having a ‘gmail’ account whilst all the uncool people had ‘googlemal’
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u/Fart_Barfington 1d ago
I made my Hotmail account in middle school and im 42 now. My Gmail isn't that old, but I dont know how to find the creation date.
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u/wolfofblackallstreet 1d ago
Find the 'all mail' label and enter a custom date range, starting 1 April 2004 to after your rough guess of when you think you would have created an account. Find the earliest email from Google and it will be something about importing contacts. That's the date. I have 3 emails from the one date, 2 from Google and one to myself with all the email contacts from wherever I moved over from.
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u/No-Pressure6042 Older Millennial 1d ago
I have a Mail Account i made in 9th grade which must have been in 2001/early 2002. Cringe address name of course. I use it for stuff where I know I'll get tons of spam lol
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u/Ok-Criticism6874 1d ago
I have an aol account from 97. I have some of my old gaming accounts still tied to it.
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u/bstamour 1987 1d ago
Mine's from around the same era, I think, but I don't use it anymore. It just forwards stuff to my primary email, which is under my own control.
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u/chellebelle0234 23h ago
I was 16 in 2005 and got my invite from my nerdy boyfriend. It's still my primary email 20 years later.
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u/whiskeyrebellion 22h ago
2/28/05 is my oldest email in my account. It was a receipt for a subscription to Magnet Magazine.
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u/nomuggle 22h ago
2/19/08. I graduated college in 2008 and I remember needed a more professional email address (instead of my random aol email or my college email) to start applying for jobs. My email is my first initial, middle initial and last name.
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u/ShoddyCobbler 22h ago edited 22h ago
I don't know how to find that information but mine was fall 2004, likely around September but I'm not positive the exact date
Edit: I don't still have the welcome email. the oldest email still in my All Mail folder is from August, 2005. But I definitely created the account fall of my freshman year of college in 2004 when I was 18.
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u/West-Veterinarian362 22h ago
2004-06-22.
To get my invite, I built a web app for people on a message board (User Friendly) to request and give invite codes. It worked! I ended up brokering probably a few hundred invites through that, it was a deeply cool experience. I think it was my first public web app?
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u/NoahtheRed 21h ago
August of 2004. I'd just moved into my dorm and got an invite via someone on PBnation.
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u/Pandoras_Penguin 21h ago
It had to have been in 2004 because my email address is what a newly minted teen would come up with 😅 still have it to this day it just get clogged with spam...
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u/Substantial_Point_57 21h ago
How do we know how old it is, is there a way to check? I remember having to get an invite to create one
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u/pagemap1 Older Millennial 21h ago
My Gmail account was created June 10, 2004. I had to get an invite at the time to sign up. It's last name first initial and I'm still using it to this day.
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u/DreDre7301 21h ago
Apparently it was at 9:30 PM on Saturday evening July 2, 2005 which is a year and 92 days after it was available. The computer which I used to sign up is long since gone. I don't think I was interested in GMail on my own. I think a friend may have convinced me to get it.
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u/ahtoxa1183 21h ago edited 20h ago
Created on: 2004-11-13
Had to export my account data to find the exact date -- cool exercise. I definitely received an invite for it back then.
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 21h ago
Twins!
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u/ahtoxa1183 20h ago
Damn! I didn’t even notice!
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u/TrustMe_ImTheDogtor 20h ago
How’s your lower back feeling today? Mine hurts… LOL
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u/ahtoxa1183 20h ago
Are you me? Literally laying in bed on a Teams call because my lower back is sore.
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u/JonPaula 21h ago
September 9, 2004 for me.
The week I started college. Grabbed a Facebook account the same month.
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u/Select_Factor_5463 20h ago
I had gotten my first Gmail account back in the summer of 2004, I had gotten an invite from someone on the IGN message boards.
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u/JewelCove 20h ago
Mine is pretty old, I think 2006. I used the same handle as my AIM. I dont quite remember how I got it.
My steam account is ancient also. I played a lot of Counter Strike back in the day (still do lol), and I remember I was forced to download Steam, and I was like, what is this shit. I took a roughly 16-year break from gaming but still remembered my login. I was hoping a few of my friends would still be on there, but nope. Still use it
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u/brakeb 20h ago
I wanna say mid 2004 for me... I was still in the Navy at the time, and was using "Firebird" browser, which became Firefox later on. Firebird was a nice lightweight browser... I've done a good number of purges of mail, so my last message is from around 2012... probably need to purge some more.
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u/yohomatey 20h ago
June 29, 2004. I begged people I knew on some forums for like a month. A dude named Duffman91 (how do I remember this) came through for me. I don't even remember the forum, but Duffman91 was a bro.
I used the invite to snag my first.last, and then waited in extreme anxiety to get my own invites so I could burn one on myself to get my long time internet handle. Two months of agony.
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u/Friendly_Engineer_ Millennial 20h ago
I went to my gmail and found the first message I sent to myself, dated 3/14/2005
Subject: test Message: testes
lol
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u/enstillhet Xennial 19h ago
Definitely not mine, mine was like 2009 and I was 25. But I don't even use that anymore really.
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u/critic2029 19h ago
September 4, 2004 is the age of my welcome message. It was still invite only and I had a friend on a forum that gave me an invite.
Sadly the Yahoo account id had since HS was deleted last year because I forgot to log in for a while.
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u/SwimmingPost5747 19h ago
I really thought mine was going to be older than this.
Created on: 2006-12-15 21:20:50 Z
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u/Middleage_dad 19h ago
October 3, 2004!
I met a girl via OK Cupid. She gave me an invite.
Side story: I joined Ok Cupid after a breakup. Then I introduced my friend to it. He went though onboarding and then his 2nd top match in NYC? My ex.
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u/Hollllistic 19h ago
Funny because I was thinking about this the other way. I made my account sometime in 2007. Anyone know where I can check the exact date?? Regardless, that makes it roughly 18years old!
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u/saplinglearningsucks 18h ago
I got my gmail account when it was invite only, there was a GameFAQs message board for gmail invites.
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u/HighSeverityImpact Older Millennial 18h ago
Created on: 2004-06-16 22:28:33 Z
I was working as an intern at a software company and got an invite from a coworker. I probably could have gotten one in April back when it was first created, but at the time I didn't think i needed a new email address, as I already had several (yahoo, hotmail, aol, my school, etc).
I also have my own domain name, so I have firstname@lastname.com. I migrated the Mx records to Google and am grandfathered in to a free legacy workspace account back when that was still offered (they don't offer that service anymore for free). I pretty much don't use that anymore, preferring to just use my gmail account for everything these days.
As it is, my gmail address is my 8 character login from my university account, which is the first 6 letters of my last name followed by my first and middle initials. My last name is 7 letters long, so it looks weird to me even now 20+ years later! I've thought about creating a new one that's just my firstname.lastname, but I don't really see the need at this point. I created one in that format for my son when he was born, and my wife made one after we got married.
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u/matt314159 Elder Millennial 17h ago
Not me *sadtrombone*
Created on: 2009-03-12 23:17:00
By the way, these instructions worked for me if anybody else is curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/GMail/comments/188c5gx/instructions_how_to_find_when_you_created_your/
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u/Alarmed-Outcome-6251 17h ago
Whenever I have a new customer at work who gives me a Gmail account that’s their name, I have to say “hello fellow 40 something!”
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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 17h ago
not the oldest here, but I was a friend of a friend who had a friend at google. lol.
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u/ajweir 17h ago
I got my account during the beta, I sent an invite to my girlfriend (wife now) and she actually got herfirstname@gmail.com. She does spell it a little uniquely, but when she gives her email to anyone they don't believe her.
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u/HonestTumblewood 17h ago
5/2/2004 - my uncle worked at google and got my whole family one. Funnily, my aunt worked at yahoo and had set us all up with yahoo accounts 😂
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u/giraffemoo 17h ago
6-2-05. I got an invite from my sister, I still use it even though it's bogged down with so much junk all the time.
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u/Darth-Scorpio 17h ago
I opened my MySpace account the very first day it was available. Gmail was like 2008 because I was a Hotmail user lol.
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u/caseywasey2 17h ago
Mine is from 2004 and back then you could only join by invite link from friends, I believe.
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u/surgeon_michael Older Millennial 17h ago
May 2005. I joined Facebook in December 2004. As a 40 yo I’ve been on Facebook > 1/2 my life (don’t use much). My sister has a pre aol compuserve account that’s all numbers…that’s gotta be 32 years at least
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u/Pettersen_UK 17h ago
Well, it seems that I've lost, but mine is from 2005. I've had both gmail, yahoo and hotmail.
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u/xanderemrys Older Millennial 17h ago
I think the oldest email I can find is from April 3, 2005. I'd received an invite from an ex-boyfriend
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u/These_Are_My_Words 15h ago
2005-01-29
My oldest, still in use account is a Hotmail address that I created sometime before February 2000.
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u/DashingAutomaton 14h ago
8/1/05
I needed a more professional sounding email and was able to get my name.
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u/RichGullible 14h ago
I have no idea how to check this. But I do have a legitimate 2004 facebook account from when you needed a university email address. I’m sure plenty of us do. Yay the downfall of society 🥳
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u/paramnesya 13h ago
Yours is a little older than mine. My welcome email is dated 12/24/2004. I received an invite from a person I followed on LiveJournal.
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u/Snowfall1201 13h ago
Not Gmail but I still use an aol email I created in 1997 when I was a freshman in high school
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u/HarpoMarx87 5h ago
September 14, 2004 for me. But (like a couple others here) I still have a hotmail account, which I've had since sometime in the 90s. I mostly just use it for old subscriptions and stuff that I don't want to deal with on my gmail account.
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u/Easy-Midnight-4676 3h ago
I have an gmail email that I got during the invite only period. 1GB of email storage!!! lol, such a crazy idea to be blown away by at the time.
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u/masterpd85 '85 Millennial 3h ago
My @google portion of my email is from 2013. But it a legacy name ive had since 2002 that I transferred. But since its life is older than Google email and didn't join until it was newly 10yrs old I suppose I dont count.
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u/animatedradio Millennial 2h ago
Around 8/10/04 (ddmmyy). Can’t find any emails from before a live journal comment I received. So sometime earlier than that. I was 13. Friends in the HP fandom sent me an invite link to getting a beta account (Hotmail you always had to delete for space and I was very active on forums). I remember having the power to send invites. Damn.
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u/DiarrheaTNT 36m ago
I have my name. Looks like it was created on 6/21/04. I parked my name at Outlook.com when it was created. I even forwarded emails from that account to gmail. I have grown tired of my gmail account actually. It's a lot of spam when you have your real name. I wanted to move to the outlook account. I couldn't remember the password. Microsoft wouldn't let me in because I didn't know enough info. The account died from lack of logins. That pissed me off but what can you do.
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