929 929 people found this article helpful Updated on October 9, 2022 Protect email recipients' privacy when sending Gmail messages
What to Know
This article explains how to send a message to undisclosed recipients in Gmail using the Bcc field.
How to Send Email to Undisclosed Gmail Recipients
To send a message in Gmail with all email addresses hidden:
Select Compose in Gmail to start a new message.
In the To field, type Undisclosed recipients followed by your own email address within angle brackets. For example:
Undisclosed recipients
Select Bcc.
If you don't see the Bcc field, click Bcc on the top right of the message you created. You can also use the Gmail keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+B (Windows) or Command+Shift+B (Mac) to display the Bcc field.
Type the email addresses of all recipients in the Bcc field.
Type your message and provide an email subject, then select Send.
How to Make an Email Group in Gmail
If you frequently send messages to the same group of recipients, consider creating an email group in Gmail:
Open Google Contacts and check the box beside each contact you want to include in the group.
Select the label above the list, then select Create Label in the sidebar.
Enter a name for the new group and select Save.
To add more contacts to a group, select the contact(s), then select the Label icon and choose the group.
A check mark will appear next to the group name. Select Apply to add the contact(s) to the group.
When composing an email, type the name of the new group in the Bcc field. Gmail will populate the field with the complete name, and no one in the group will be able to see the addresses of any other recipients.
If you want all recipients to know who else is receiving the message, add a note at the beginning that lists all recipients minus their email addresses.
No Mass Mailings
You can't use these methods for large mailings. According to Google, free Gmail is meant for personal use, not for bulk mailing. If you attempt to add a large group of recipients in the Bcc field, the entire mailing may fail.
What About Reply All?
Email addresses in the Bcc field are copies of the email only. If a recipient chooses to reply, they can reply only to addresses listed in the To and Cc fields. For this reason, Bcc is a great way to stop a reply-all chain before it starts.
FAQ
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How do I unsend an email in Gmail?
First, set up the feature to unsend a message in Gmail: Go to Settings > See All Settings > General. In the Undo section, choose the time allotment Gmail should pause before sending a message (e.g., 30 seconds). To unsend, select the message and choose Undo.
How do I block an email address in Gmail?
To block a sender in Gmail, open a message from the sender and select More (three dots) next to Reply. Select Block Sender > Block. The sender won't know that they've been blocked.
How do I schedule an email in Gmail?
To schedule an email in Gmail, compose your message and select the arrow next to Send > select Schedule Send. In the pop-up window, choose from the sending time options or select Pick Date & Time to choose an exact date and time > select Schedule Send.
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When you are emailing sensitive business information to employees, vendors or clients, you might occasionally want to prevent recipients from seeing the names and email addresses of others who received copies of your message. All email clients give you the ability to hide recipients by entering a list of email addresses in the "Bcc" or "Blind Carbon Copy" field. The procedure for adding Bcc recipients varies from one email client to another.
Gmail
Click "Compose" in your Gmail account.
Click "Add Bcc" below the "To" field to insert a Bcc field at that location.
Type in the email addresses of your intended recipients in the Bcc field.
Enter a subject, type the body of the message, and then click "Send."
Hotmail/Outlook.com
Click "New" on your Outlook.com account home page.
Click "Cc & Bcc" to the right of the "To" field. The Cc and Bcc lines are added on the left side of the screen.
Type in the email addresses of your intended recipients in the Bcc field.
Enter a subject, type the body of the message and click "Send."
Microsoft Office Outlook
Click "New" in Microsoft Office Outlook to open a new email message.
Select "Options" in the ribbon toolbar, then click "Show Bcc" in the Fields section. The Bcc field appears under the Cc field and to the right of the "Send" button.
Type the email addresses of your intended recipients in the Bcc field.
Enter a subject, type the body of your message and click "Send."