Email aliases in Gmail app My university gives me an email that looks like

ab123456@domain

Fortunately, I am allowed to make an alternate name for my email, like

first.last@domain

All of the email is still sent through ab123456. In fact, when I set up the SMTP settings, I have to use this address. On my desktop client, I can send emails that say that they were sent from first.last. Is there a way of doing this in the new Gmail app?

I am using the new Gmail app (which absorbed the Email app) in Android 5.0.
Proper aliases, where you can pick either address as the sender, isn't possible in Gmail. However, in your case I understand you never want to use ab123456@domain; you always want to use first.last@domain.

In that case, when adding a new account, use first.last@domain as your email address and choose manual setup. Enter your password when prompted and then, in the incoming server settings, change your username to ab123456@domain. Enter all other settings and do the same for the outgoing server.

Now you have email setup for your account that will always use first.last@domain when sending email. It will of course read email sent to either.