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Can you send an email to multiple recipients without them knowing Gmail?



Can you send an email to multiple recipients without them knowing Gmail?


You're trying to share a link with your friend, but there's only one option – BCC. They won't see it until they open their own inboxes later on, which is annoying if not impossible for some people. But what if you could just let everyone know about the message at once by sending it out as a group rather than individually?

Well, that’s possible thanks to two important features in modern messaging platforms like Gmail or Outlook: CC (carbon copy) & BCC (blind carbon copy). Here are all the ways you can use these tools to manage large groups without letting anyone else read those messages too early.

Note: If you want to learn more about how mail servers work, check our guide detailing how email works first.

How do I send a mass email without showing the other recipients?

CC stands for "Carbon Copy" while BCC refers to blind Carbon Copy. You will often hear both used interchangeably, although technically speaking they aren’t actually the same thing since BCC lets others receive copies of certain information while CC doesn’t show who the copied recipient is. In case you didn’t get why this matters here, consider it as a real-life example where someone sends you tickets for something via SMS, then you give the codes to another person. The original sender would have sent the ticket to your phone number while the second party wouldn’t be able to view any details unless they opened up their phone app. Now imagine you wanted to inform a bunch of friends about the event ahead so you need to send them a text, but don’t want to tell them directly. That’s when CC comes into play. When you type “to:" before your address, Gmail automatically adds CC field for every recipient. This means even though the content itself isn’t visible, new users still won’t know who got the email.

To avoid accidentally revealing sensitive data such as credit card numbers, always make sure to doublecheck the "Show Recipients" dropdown menu after composing your email. Otherwise, CC should cover your tracks well enough.

If you’re looking for a quick way to create multiple CC lists within Gmail, follow these steps below:

Click the gear icon next to Mailbox tab.

Select Settings.

Go to Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

Scroll down to Enable forwarding options section and click Create filters.

Create separate labels for different types of mails you plan to forward, e.g., social media posts, promotional offers, etc. Then select Add Filter… button under Apply Filters label.

In the popup window, add conditions based on subject line, keywords, and body contents. Once done, hit Save Changes.

Now you should be ready to start creating your first list! Just go back to the previous screen, choose New List... and name it accordingly. Repeat the process above again to create additional lists. For instance, you might want to set up three lists per department: marketing, sales, and support.

Can I send a mass email from Gmail without showing the addresses?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy, meaning it does exactly what its title suggests. So now that we know how to hide CC field in mass emails, what happens if you want to keep it hidden yet still allow everyone to join in? One solution is to add BCC lines manually for each intended recipient. However, doing that requires extra effort and time commitment because you'll have to retype individual emails instead of clicking Send All Message.

For easier management, try setting up auto BCC feature in Gmail. It allows you to automate adding BCC headers to your outgoing emails. To enable it, head over to Settings > General Controls > Auto-Add Sender Name to Messages. Click Edit Template... near Email Options box. Select BCC field from available choices, enter desired value, and press OK. Next, pick a template style and customize it further if necessary. Finally, click Save changes and exit settings. From then onwards, whenever you compose a new email, Gmail will automatically insert BCC tags for everyone involved. Note that this method may cause issues if your contacts change frequently, especially if they also use Gmail.



How can I send bulk emails without showing addresses in Gmail?

There are several methods you can employ to prevent other recipients from viewing your personal email address(es). Some require prior setup while others rely on third-party apps. Let us take a look at some common ones.

1. Use disposable email services

The simplest way to protect your privacy is to utilize disposable email providers like Unroll.me or Mailinator. These services mask your actual identity behind unique temporary accounts, making it harder for unwanted parties to track you down. Of course, you must ensure to properly logout of said services once everything has been resolved.

2. Use a burner mobile number for texts

This trick involves assigning a special number to incoming calls. By default, most carriers block unknown numbers, preventing callers from contacting your personal cell. Luckily, you can circumvent this rule by obtaining free Google Voice account or signing up for popular burner service Zello. Afterward, assign a custom code to incoming texts and leave your primary number untouched.

3. Don't use Facebook login everywhere

Facebook recently introduced Login Approvals feature that gives you the ability to temporarily authorize some websites access to your profile info. While convenient, it poses security risk if you blindly grant permissions to random sites. Instead, opt for better protection by disabling automatic login altogether. On Firefox browser, disable SmartLogin extension found inside Tools menu. And for Chrome, visit chrome://flags/#enable-logging-in-firefox page and search for Logins permission. Find Login Notifications entry in About:config table and toggle it off.

4. Use encrypted messengers

Encrypted instant messaging platform Telegram uses end-to-end encryption protocol called MTProto to safeguard user communications. As long as no unencrypted version exists, spyware cannot intercept your chats. Even if someone manages to crack the system, they won’t be able to decipher private information due to lack of decryption key.

5. Avoid public Wi-Fi networks

Public hotspots pose significant risks if you fail to secure your connection. Hackers can easily steal your browsing history, passwords, and other sensitive data through man-in-the-middle attacks. Fortunately, you can minimize potential threats by staying away from free Wi-Fi spots. Whenever possible, connect to network provided by your Internet Service Provider. Most ISPs limit your bandwidth speed to 5 Mbps anyway so you shouldn’t notice much slowdown. Also, you can turn your router’s WPS function off in order to thwart hackers attempting to brute force wireless passcodes.

6. Set up multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), sometimes referred to as two-step verification, creates stronger layers of security by requiring proof beyond username and password. Usually, MFA employs physical device keys, software tokens, or randomly generated numeric codes. With proper usage, MFA prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing your digital assets.

7. Keep your operating systems updated

Keeping your hardware drivers, firmware updates, OS patches, and antivirus definitions up to date helps reduce chances of malware infection. Malicious actors regularly release zero day exploits that exploit vulnerabilities left uncovered by outdated programs. Thus, installing critical updates immediately provides maximum defense against cybercriminals. Furthermore, Windows Defender already includes anti-phishing functionality, so running Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) extension on your desktop computer serves little purpose.

8. Check spam folder regularly

Spam folders contain unsolicited messages that usually arrive with misleading subjects, grammatically incorrect sentences, or irrelevant attachments. While legitimate correspondence occasionally lands here, junk is mostly delivered by automated bots designed to harvest victims' contact information. Spammers typically use fake names, addresses, and telephone numbers, making it hard to recognize incoming reports. Therefore, keeping tabs on spam messages is essential for identifying fraudulent activity sooner. Be careful when opening suspicious links and attachments because malicious entities may attempt to spread viruses by disguising themselves as useful applications.

9. Beware of phishing scams

Phishing scam targets unsuspecting internet users by imitating official institutions and businesses. Emails commonly include convincing messages asking users to provide sensitive information such as financial credentials. Scammers will then siphon your personal data and sell them to illegal brokers online. Phishers use various techniques to dupe people including impersonating trustworthy authorities, sending illegitimate letters, and employing sophisticated web pages. Always exercise caution anytime you encounter unexpected requests for personal information.

10. Protect yourself from surveillance schemes

Surveillance relies on tracking devices installed on computers or phones to monitor activities performed by users. A single piece of malware is capable of recording every website visited, logging keystrokes, stealing files, hijacking webcam video feeds, and monitoring live conversations. Fortunately, most major browsers come equipped with built-in adblocker functionality. Alternatively, you can install extensions specifically designed to combat remote cameras. Webcam Shield blocks images captured by external gadgets. Meanwhile, No More Camera takes care of mic surveillance. Lastly, you can download Mozilla Thunderbird messenger client, which protects your chat sessions from being monitored remotely.

11. Pay attention to metadata

You've probably seen this situation before.

A friend sends you a link via text, but it's embarrassing because he sent it out as "private" or "direct." You don't want your co-workers to see what you're reading, so you CC yourself on that message. But now everyone knows about the scandalous news.

Or maybe you just need to share something with someone who doesn't use email very much (like grandma) and they might not be tech savvy enough to know how to respond. Or you have a bunch of people at work who should receive updates from certain projects but you can't tell if there are any new messages waiting for them.

Whatever the reason, you may find yourself wanting to send emails privately. And while some services like WhatsApp allow users to send private messages without showing up on their own devices, most email systems aren't quite as flexible when it comes to hiding recipients. If you'd prefer privacy in these situations, here's how to get those emails delivered securely.

How do you send the same email to more than one recipient without them knowing?

One way to accomplish this would be to create separate accounts for these different people, then forward all of your correspondence through them. The downside is that forwarding messages requires extra effort — you'll have to log into every account separately whenever you want to check your inboxes. It also means you won't always have access to important information if you forget which forwarded address you used.

For example, let's say we had three friends named John, Mary, and Bill. Let's also assume that our goal was to keep everything secret between us until after it arrived. We could set up three Gmail accounts under completely fake names, such as johndoe, marypls, and billpryde. After receiving a message meant for john, we'd forward it onto the corresponding email account for him. Then, once it arrives on his device, he logs in under his real name and sees the content. From there, he has control over whether he wants to reply or delete the message.

It's possible to achieve similar results by setting up filters. For instance, if we wanted to make sure only we saw our own messages, we could put together a filter that automatically forwards anything addressed to john@gmail.com to his personal email. This lets us view incoming mail without worrying about keeping track of any forwarding addresses. However, if you ever needed to change the sender's address, you'd have to open the filtered message instead of doing it directly within Gmail.

How do you send a mass email and hide recipients Google?

If you're looking for a quick solution, consider creating a group mailing list. All you need to do is add everyone you want to hear about it to the list and write your note. Send it off, and voila! Your recipients will never know anyone else received their copy. Of course, if you really want anonymity, you can try making your list invisible to others. Unfortunately, this method isn't foolproof since you can still search for members' profiles. Plus, it only works with Gmail lists.

However, if you want complete secrecy, you can skip the middleman entirely. Instead of sending your email to your colleagues, simply compose it in draft mode and save it locally. When you're ready to send it out, head to Mailbox in Chrome, select the file you saved earlier, and click Publish Post. Click Save Draft As… and give the post its own unique URL. Now, send this link to whoever you want to contact and it'll instantly appear on their end. No one needs to know where it came from.

This trick even works with Apple Mail. Just go to File & New Message and choose Create Link In…. Give it something memorable and easy to remember, and send it wherever you wish.

How do I send an email without showing the recipients in Gmail?

While hiding recipients sounds great, sometimes you actually want to show them. Maybe you want to avoid accidentally revealing sensitive info in your subject line, or perhaps you want to alert them right away so they can read it first. Whatever the case may be, you can do that too!

Head back to Gmail and hover over the Recipients field. Underneath "To," type the names of the intended recipients. Below that, enter "@groupnamehere" and hit Enter. That will replace the To field with an @ symbol followed by whatever you wrote underneath Group Name. Then, fill in the blank space above Subject with whatever you want to include in your message body. Finally, hit Send and watch as the recipients populating themselves below Body.

If you'd rather do it manually, press Ctrl + Shift + N to bring up the Compose window. Type the individual email addresses next to Add people separated by the comma character. Above the field, input "@" again, then paste in the title of your email and hit Return. Next, continue typing the rest of the details beneath Body. Once done, hit Send. Like the previous step, recipients will populate themselves according to the rules.

The manual process does take longer, but you can customize it more precisely. Feel free to experiment with formatting options, like changing the font style or color. Try adding special characters like exclamation points or smileys to spice things up. If you want to remove recipients altogether, feel free to play around with the HTML code.

Depending on your browser, you may notice that this feature appears slightly differently depending on your settings. Some users report that the option is located somewhere other than the Compose menu, so look under More " Templates " Email Form Field Labels. Others claim it pops up as soon as they start typing. Regardless, it seems to appear consistently across Gmail and Hotmail.

In addition to Gmail, Microsoft 365 offers a version of this tool called Email Blocking. While it's nowhere near as robust as the aforementioned solutions, it allows you to block specific words or phrases inside of an email header. So, if you're trying to stay anonymous but want to prevent people from guessing who you are based upon your username, this feature can come in handy.

Email is a convenient way for people to communicate. However, sending emails with multiple recipients can sometimes make things complicated. If the sender doesn't know how to use BCC or CC fields properly, it's easy for more than one recipient to receive their own messages.

In this article we'll look at what happens when you try to send an email to two different addresses simultaneously and show you how to avoid that problem if needed. We'll also cover some simple ways to send an email message to multiple recipients without them knowing about it.

Note: This article will focus on Windows-based systems as well as Gmail (for simplicity). The instructions may differ slightly depending on your operating system and email service provider.

Can I send email to multiple recipients without them knowing?

If you want to share something sensitive like confidential information, but not have anyone else see it, consider setting up an alias account instead. You don't need a second account just to send private messages — you could create a new Gmail account specifically for such purposes.

To set up an alias address, open Settings " Accounts & Import. Scroll down until you find Other Mail Services under Email Options. Click Add another mail account, then follow the prompts through. When asked which type of account you'd like to add, choose Custom POP3 Account. Enter your username and password, click Next again, then check off Get my full name and enter your desired nickname. Finally, select Create Account from the bottom menu bar. Once you're all done, hit Done once more.

Now, whenever you compose a new email, tap Send As followed by New Nickname. Your friend who signed up for the alias won't be able to tell they've received an email addressed to someone else unless they happen to read both accounts together. To prevent them from doing so, simply delete the original copy after they've opened it.

The same principle applies elsewhere too. For example, suppose you want to start a personal blog and post updates every day. Why bother creating an actual Google+ page? Just sign up for a free throwaway Gmail account and use it exclusively for blogging. That way, your friends won't get mixed up with those regular posts.

You might even go further and replace Google Drive entirely. While it takes longer to upload files via web apps compared to native tools, there are still benefits to making everything work locally. It's faster, easier, and less likely to crash. Plus, most productivity suites let you save documents directly into folders within a local drive anyway.

As long as you keep these aliases separate from your primary account, your privacy should remain intact. Don't worry about getting locked out either — just change your recovery options online.

It's important to note that while aliases allow you to hide certain details from others, they aren't meant to fool everyone. In particular, any email header changes made to your main profile wouldn't affect aliases created afterwards since they only apply to future messages sent from that specific account.

That means you shouldn't rely solely on aliases to protect your identity. Use two-factor authentication wherever possible, especially if you store sensitive data on your phone.

An alternative option would be to use disposable email services like Zoho Mail. These offer limited storage space and typically expire after a month. They're great for temporary jobs where you want to appear anonymous, but otherwise serve little purpose beyond keeping track of things you don't care about.


Can I send an email to many recipients without them seeing?

When trying to reach large groups of people, you might wonder whether you can limit how much contact info makes its way onto a single outgoing message. Unfortunately, the answer isn't always yes.

For instance, say you wanted to send a mass email to several hundred coworkers. How would you ensure that no one saw anything that wasn't supposed to? Of course, you could just ask everyone involved individually before mailing, but that obviously defeats the point of being automated.

Fortunately, modern versions of Microsoft Office include functionality called Tracking Protection. With it enabled, you can restrict access to content based on certain criteria — including IP ranges, email domains, and file extensions. Head over to File " Info " Protect Document Contents... to activate it.

Once activated, you'll notice a few minor changes to the ribbon interface across various programs. First, the More Commands dropdown box displays an icon indicating the current status. Second, the right sidebar lists five additional tabs including Restrict Access, Blocking Lists, Safety Checks, and Security Rules.

Head back to Safe Mode to remove tracking protection if necessary. Be aware that blocking software can cause problems with incoming messages, particularly ones containing attachments. Try disabling it temporarily first if you run into issues.

Most importantly, remember that while Tracking Protection does help reduce the risk of accidentally leaking sensitive information, it's not infallible. Someone determined enough could probably circumvent it somehow. Also, don't forget that even with Tracking Protection turned on, people outside of your network could potentially view your outgoing messages.

Microsoft has provided guidelines detailing exactly what kinds of items fall under its restrictions. Here's a quick summary:

All text within Word and Excel spreadsheets

Images embedded in PowerPoint presentations

Documents in OneNote notebooks

Videos in Publisher and Visio diagrams

Audio clips included in Groove Music

Files attached to emails in Outlook

Any images added to calendar events

Third parties aside, the list above covers pretty much everything you'd ever want to put inside a document. Even so, there are plenty of exceptions. Emails are among the easiest pieces of media to embed without permission. So if you really must attach a spreadsheet or presentation, take precautions beforehand to minimize the chance of trouble later.

How do I send an email to multiple recipients without them seeing each other?

Gmail users are familiar with the concept of separating BCCs from CCs, but did you know you can accomplish similar tasks with individual emails too? Simply forward emails between different contacts with your own email client instead of Gmail itself.

Forwarding works regardless of the size of your inbox because you're actually forwarding copies rather than originals. Forwarded messages bypass spam filters and often end up going straight to junk, meaning they never arrive in the intended recipient's mailbox.

There are downsides though, namely the extra time required to deal with forwarded email threads. But if you can live with that hassle, you should definitely take advantage of the process.

How do I stop email recipients from seeing each other?

While having multiple people in BCC/CC allows you to discuss topics privately, it can result in confusion if multiple receivers happen to glance at the same message at the same time. Fortunately, you can easily block views of certain parts of outgoing messages.

Open the relevant conversation thread in question. Then head over to View " Message headers " Block messages. On the resulting dialog window, tick the appropriate boxes next to Hide From and Hide Subject lines to disable viewing of those elements respectively. Hit OK twice to confirm.

This method only blocks portions of a given message, however. People can still see the entire thing by scrolling past the section you blocked. It's best used when dealing with short snippets of text, not whole paragraphs.

A better solution is to employ a third party app designed specifically for this task. Some examples include Mail Privacy Guard Pro, MailPrivacy Lite [Broken URL Removed], and MailPrivacy Free. All three provide unlimited message hiding capabilities.

Be warned that hidden messages are harder to spot in general. Recipients tend to ignore them altogether due to lack of context clues. Thus, it's wise to turn off automatic filtering for BCC/CCed mails. Otherwise, you could miss vital correspondence.

Do bear in mind that blocking incoming messages affects legitimate correspondents too, so you might want to give them advanced notification. Most providers support features like whitelisting and customised greetings to help here.

Keep reading

These days, almost everyone uses Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to talk to strangers. But why not stick with traditional SMS texts instead? Learn more in our guide explaining why texting sucks.


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