How to Hide or Show BCC field in Outlook

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy in an electronic mail system. It is used when you want to send a copy of an email to other recipients. You can add as many recipients to the BCC as you want. This article will guide you on how to show or hide the BCC field in Outlook.

What does BCC and CC stand for?

The BCC field is different from the To field and the CC field. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. CC stands for Carbon Copy. All the recipients can read the email addresses added to the To and the CC fields. On the other hand, the email addresses added to the BCC field remain hidden, and no recipients can read them.

How to Hide or Show BCC field in Outlook

Here, we will show you how to enable and disable the BCC field in:

1. Outlook desktop app
2. Outlook.com

Let’s see the procedure for both of these Outlook applications.

1] How to show or hide BCC field in Outlook desktop app

The steps that we will explain here are for Outlook 2021 desktop client. If you are using another version of the Outlook desktop app, the steps may differ due to the interface.

Follow the below-listed instructions:

1. Launch Microsoft Outlook desktop app.
2. Click on the new email button on the left side. This will open a new window to send an email.
3. In the email compose window, click on the Options tab.
4. Click on the 3 horizontal dotted link and then click BCC.
5. This will show the BCC field in Outlook.
6. To hide the BCC field in Outlook, click again on the BCC field.

In Outlook 2019/2016, you will see the setting here:

If you are replying to an email, you will find the BCC option under the Message tab. You can enable and disable the BCC field while replying to a particular email by clicking on that option.

How to permanently enable BCC field in Outlook desktop app

You must repeat the above steps to enable the BCC field in the Outlook desktop app for every email. If you want to enable it permanently, first compose a new email, then enable the BCC field by following the above steps. After enabling the BCC field, close the compose mail window without saving the email. After that, the BCC field will remain enabled for every email message, whether you are composing a new message or replying to an existing one.

2] How to show or hide the BCC field in Outlook.com

In Outlook.com, you will find the BCC field on the top right side while composing an email. Click on that field to enable BCC in a particular email. Unfortunately, there is no option available in Outlook.com to remove the BCC field once you insert it in a particular email. If you have accidentally inserted the BCC field in an email, you can leave it blank or discard the mail and compose a new email message.

How to permanently enable BCC field in Outlook.com

By default, the BCC field is disabled for every email. If you want the BCC field to display permanently, follow the below-listed steps:

1. Click on the Settings icon and then click View all Outlook settings.
2. Go to “Mail > Compose and Reply.”
3. Under the Message format section on the right side, enable the checkbox adjacent to the Always show BCC option.
4. Click Save and close the Settings window.

This is all about how to show or hide the BCC field in Outlook.

Can BCC recipients see each other?

The BCC recipients can see only those email addresses you added to the To and the CC fields. All the email addresses that you add to the BCC fields remain hidden from one another. Hence, BCC is the best option to email privately for security reasons.

Read: Outlook deleted emails keep coming back to Inbox

Is BCC a good idea?

If you do not want someone to know that you have also sent a copy of the email to someone else, then it makes sense to use the BCC field.

What happens if someone replies to a BCC email in Outlook?

When it comes to replying to an email, there are two options available, Reply and Reply all. Let’s see what happens if someone replies to a BCC email in Outlook by using these two options.

• Reply: If a person uses the Reply option, the email will be sent only to the sender and no other recipients of the email could know about that message.
• Reply all: As the name implies, if a person replies to a BCC email by using the Reply all option, the email will be sent to all the recipients of that email including the sender.

That’s it.

Read next: How to set up auto CC & BCC in Gmail and Outlook.