TL;DR
- Gmail has started alerting users when they try to reply all to emails on which they were BCC’d.
- The change should help you avoid accidentally letting people know you were blind-copied.
- All Gmail users should see the new alert when applicable beginning today.
Gmail’s got a new feature that could save you some embarrassment. Starting today, when you reply-all to an email that you’re BCC’d on, you’ll see a warning that lets you know what you’re about to do will let everyone on the chain know that you were blind copied.
Google outlined the change in a blog post today. Effective immediately, when you click the Reply all button under an email that you were BCC’d on, you’ll see a prominent, yellow banner to warn you that you’re about to send your reply to everyone who was CC’d on the original message, which will both let those people know you received the original message and expose your email address to them.
The banner is hard to miss and plainly worded. “You were BCC’d on this message. Replying to all lets everyone know you were included,” it warns.
It’d be nice to see a similar warning for replying all on every email, not just ones users were BCC’d on — anyone who deals with a lot of email knows the pain of getting notified about a bunch of replies that were meant for someone else. Still, today’s change is a good start.
The new warning should show up to everyone using Gmail, regardless of their account type or subscription plan, starting today.
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