How to Add and Use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) in Outlook Messages

Plus, we explain what the heck it is

Has a coworker asked you to blind carbon copy (BCC) them into an email, but you don’t know what they’re talking about? Don’t worry — you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about BCC and how you can use it in Outlook.

In email lingo, CC stands for “carbon copy,” and BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” When you add email addresses to the CC and BCC fields, you send a third party a copy of the email. This is true regardless of your email service — whether it’s Microsoft Office’s Outlook or Gmail.

Both CC and BCC are very similar. The difference is when you add a person into the CC field, the email recipient can see the CC recipient in the email. However, when you add someone into the BCC field, the email recipient cannot see that anyone was copied into the email.

How to Add a BCC in Outlook

The blind carbon copy field is hidden in Outlook by default, so you first need to check if you have the Bcc option enabled. If it’s not enabled, you will need to turn BCC on.

BCC should be enabled in the web version, so all you need to do is hit the BCC button:

In the desktop version, you may need to enable BCC first. This process is the same for Windows and Mac:

Blind carbon copying in themobile Outlook appis simple:

How to View BCC Recipients of Messages You Send in Outlook

If you can’t remember who you’ve BCC’d, you can check the BCC recipients of an email message you’ve sent as follows:

How to View BCC Recipients of Emails You Receive

If you suspect an email you received has someone BCC’d, you may be tempted to look into it. It is impossible to see BCC recipients of incoming emails in any Outlook version — after all, that’s BCC’s whole purpose.

Can You Auto-BCC Emails in Microsoft Outlook

In Outlook, you can automatically CC someone on every new message you send or specific emails. While this can be a handy tool, there is currently no BCC equivalent for this.

You can download third-party add-ins to do this, but beware, they are not Microsoft-approved and may contain malware or cause your Outlook app to malfunction.

When to Use BCC

The proper email etiquette for using BCC in a professional setting can be a bit hard to determine. Most see using BCC as a bit sneaky because recipients are blind and cannot see who else is reading the email. In most cases, classic CC is preferred.

That said, there are certainly times when BCC comes in handy. Here are some examples to give you an idea of when to BCC instead of Cc.

Apart from the social rules of BCC’ing, there are a few other things to keep in mind:

Choose When to BCC

BCC is a simple and handy tool you can use in Microsoft Outlook. Whether using the browser, desktop, or app version of Outlook, you should now have a good idea of how, and when to use BCC.

Jake Harfield is an Australian freelance writer whose passion is finding out how different technologies work. He has written for several online publications, focusing on explaining what he has learned to help others with their tech problems. He’s an avid hiker and birder, and in his spare time you’ll find him in the Aussie bush listening to the birdsong.Read Jake’s Full Bio

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How to Add and Use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) in Outlook Messages#

What Is a Blind Carbon Copy?#

How to Add a BCC in Outlook#

How to View BCC Recipients of Messages You Send in Outlook#

How to View BCC Recipients of Emails You Receive#

Can You Auto-BCC Emails in Microsoft Outlook#

When to Use BCC#

Choose When to BCC#