Email remains one of the most "long-lived" digital tools among Russians. According to a Yandex 360 study, 36% of users still use their first email inbox. For 41% of them, the account was created more than 15 years ago, and for another 27%, it was 10 to 15 years ago.
Email has evolved from a communication tool into a technical tool. Only 23% of respondents use it for correspondence, while 37% use it for registering in services, 29% for receiving receipts and tickets, and another 29% for password recovery. 35% store primary information in their email, and 32% additionally duplicate important data in other services. Only 21% of users are limited to one inbox, while the rest maintain two or more accounts.
When choosing a service, users primarily pay attention to spam protection and security – these criteria were named by 32% and 29% of respondents, respectively. Automatic filtering of unwanted emails was called a critically important function by 63% of study participants.
The study was conducted in April 2026 among more than 1000 residents of cities with a population of over a million. In fact, email has become a user's digital passport: it is rarely changed, used as an anchor for restoring access to other services, and trusted as an archive.
