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CC and BCC in emails can be a useful way to remind yourself of important emails or to notify colleagues about something. If you're not familiar with these two symbols, you can learn how to Differentiate CC and BCC in emails here.
Setting up automatic CC or BCC in Gmail and Outlook
Gmail and Outlook users can automate this process if needed. When activated, all your emails will be automatically CCed or BCCed. So, how do you automate CC or BCC in Gmail and Outlook?
Setting up automatic CC or BCC in Gmail and Outlook
1. Automating CC or BCC in Gmail
To automatically BCC or CC in Gmail, you'll need to use a browser extension. This feature isn't built into Gmail, and many third-party extensions require quite a few permissions to access your email.
BCC Me for Gmail (not compatible with the new Gmail) requires access to read and modify data on Gmail as well as access to your entire web browsing history. The extension that requires the least permissions is Auto BCC for Gmail from CloudHQ, which unlike other options, does not access web browsing history outside of the Gmail domain.
Once you've installed the desired extension and accessed your Gmail account, you can create a rule by following these steps:
Step 1: Click on the Compose button to create a new email.
Step 2: Click on the envelope icon next to the send button.
Step 3: In the dialog that opens, click on Add new rule.
Step 4: Below the When emails are sent from section, you'll see the email address already populated there. In the dropdown menu right below, choose to everyone, but not to and leave this field blank. Then automatically select BCC (or CC if preferred) and enter your email address.
Step 5: Click on Save Rule.
If you decide you no longer want to use this extension, you can uninstall it and revoke access to your Gmail account in the Gmail Sign-in and Security settings, which you can access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
If you're not a Chrome user or don't want to grant third-party access to your email, a good workaround for automating BCC is to utilize Gmail's forwarding and filtering features.
2. Automating CC or BCC in Outlook
Outlook users can automate CC or BCC for themselves by using the Rules feature of this email application. The process is as follows:
Step 1: In the Home tab, click on the arrow below Rules and select Manage Rules and Alerts > New Rule.
Step 2: Under Start from a blank rule, click Apply rule on messages I send > Next.
Step 3: If you want to apply this rule to all sent emails, simply click Next once again and Yes in the pop-up window. If you prefer more selective filtering, you can use the listed criteria to choose specific types of emails to automate this for.
Step 4: In Step 1 of this window, select Cc the message to people or public group. In Step 2, click on the people or public group link. In the To field, enter your email address and click Next (If you prefer not to publicly CC someone, you can mimic a BCC by selecting Move a copy to the specified folder in Step 1 and clicking on the Specified Folder link to choose your inbox.)
Step 5: Once again, you can add optional exceptions if you don't want to apply this rule to certain specific emails.
Step 6: Next, you can name your rule and ensure that Turn on this rule is checked.
Step 7: Finally, click on Finish to complete the setup process.
Additionally, you can refer to How to set up Gmail in Outlook here to use these two mailboxes in the same tool.
