Emailing a large group of people is one of the dicier email etiquette trails to navigate. You have to get your message out, but you also want to respect people’s privacy and avoid a meme-worthy “Reply All” tsunami. That’s why the BCC exists.
BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. It’s an advanced email maneuver for sending private group emails, but it’s very simple to do. All you have to do is put email addresses in the BCC field to hide them from all other recipients. Knowing how to BCC in any email client can save you from annoying email threads or more serious issues like accidental data leaks. Here, we’ll show you exactly how to use the BCC feature in Outlook, no matter which version you’re using.
Understanding Email Basics
Before we start, let’s cover the basic fields in Outlook (and any other email client):
To: This is for the primary recipients of your email—the people you are directly addressing and who are expected to respond or take action.
Cc (Carbon Copy): This is for anyone you want to keep in the loop. The “Cc” field is visible to everyone on the email thread, so all recipients know who else received the message.
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy): This is for recipients you want to privately send a copy to. Their email addresses will not be visible to anyone else on the email, including other BCC recipients.
It’s essential to understand these basics to know how to effectively use BCC.
How to Use BCC in Outlook: Step-by-Step
Finding and using BCC is slightly different from the desktop and web versions of Outlook, but it’s simple either way.
To get there:
Open a new email by clicking “New Mail” in the top left corner.
On the right of the “To” field, you’ll see a small “BCC”. Click it.
Enter the email addresses you want to hide.
With the desktop version:
Open a new email by clicking the “New Email” button.
In the new message window, you’ll see “To” and “Cc” fields. If you don’t see BCC, it’s probably hiding on the right side of the “To” field. If it’s not there, go to the “Options” tab in the ribbon at the top.
Click “BCC” either in the “To” field or in the “Show Fields” section in the “Options” tab.
Enter the email addresses you want to hide.
In both cases, once you’ve added recipients to the correct fields, you can write your email like you normally would and click “Send.”
BCC Best Practices
Knowing how to use BCC in Outlook is great, but it’s more important to know when to use it effectively. Here are some best practices and considerations:
Mass emails: BCC is perfect for sending newsletters, event invitations, or announcements to a large group of people who don’t know each other.
Put stakeholders in the “Cc” field: If you’re sharing information that’s relevant to many people and want to give them a chance to respond, it can be useful to include the right people to respond to. For instance, if you’re doing an internal survey of what kind of benefits or perks employees want, you can Cc the HR and executive teams so employees know they’re replying to the right parties.
Add your own email to the “To” field: When sending an email to only BCC recipients, you can put your own email address in the “To” field so that it doesn’t look like spam. That can also help emails make it through spam filters.
Knowing how to use BCC properly can support better internal and external communications.
FAQs
No, BCC ensures that each recipient in the BCC field cannot see the email addresses of other BCC’d recipients.
Your response will go to the original sender and any recipients listed in the “To” and “Cc” fields.
Yes, BCC recipients can see the email addresses of anyone listed in the “To” and “Cc” fields of the email.
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