Email Etiquette- Reply All
"Only use Reply All with caution."
Reply vs. Reply All
If someone sends an email to more than one person, you have two options when replying.
- Clicking "Reply" sends your message to the email's sender.
- Clicking "Reply All" sends your message to everyone who received the original.
Think of it as a chat room or a meeting. Everyone who received the email is now sitting in the same room. If you whisper something to the original sender, that's Reply. If you stand up and announce something to the whole room, that's Reply All.
Senders can prevent “Reply All”
The person sending the email can prevent a “Reply All” from occurring. To do this, use the Bcc “Blind Carbon Copy” functionality.
- When the Bcc option is used, it first masks the list of those being blind copied. Recipients cannot see who else was Bcc’d.
- When a recipient is Bcc’d, they will not be able to Reply All! So, if the sender does not want anyone to Reply All, it’s best to include all recipients in the Bcc field.
Look at the recipients
Always look at the recipient list to ensure that only the people who need to be copied on a message receive your reply. It is good practice to use Reply All and weed out unnecessary recipients when you need to answer a subset of the original recipients.