The email technology of today has evolved from very old traditions of sending and receiving letters and has stayed nearly unchanged over the years with some of the terms associated remaining the same from the days when communication was still done using paper. When composing an email, you sure have noticed the CC: and BCC: but have you ever wondered what they mean?
What is CC and BCC in Email?
In an email, the CC field stands for Carbon Copy, and the BCC field stands for Blind Carbon Copy.
When communication was majorly through paper, in the old days, for creating a physical copy of a letter you would have to insert a carbon paper between two sheets of paper
This would imprint whatever you wrote on the top sheet through the carbon paper onto the bottom sheet of paper. Then the bottom sheet of paper would be called the "Carbon Copy" of the original.
As we moved ahead from paper to email, there was a need to send a "carbon copy" of an email to someone and the CC field was born.
What does CC mean in Email?
You can use the CC field in an email to send a "carbon copy" of the email to someone apart from the recipient of the email in the To: field. You can keep recipients in the loop using this CC field.
For instance, let's say that you are sending an email to a company with the project quote. At the same time, you want to send a copy of the email to your manager so that he is in the loop. In this case, you just have to put in the email id of the company in the To: field and the email id of your manager in the CC: field.
What does BCC mean?
BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. BCC is also used to send a carbon copy of the email to someone like CC but the main difference between the two lies in the way BCC works.
The recipients in both the To and CC fields are able to see the email addresses of each other when you CC an email to someone. Like in the example we have taken above, the company can see that your manager has been CC'd in the email. If you want to avoid this and keep the carbon copy recipients private, you can use the BCC field.
The recipients in the To and CC field are unable to see the email addresses that are mentioned in the BCC field as they are kept hidden.
Difference Between CC and BCC
This table will demonstrate the difference between CC and BCC in email -
| |
CC (Carbon Copy) |
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) |
| Full form |
Carbon Copy |
Blind Carbon Copy |
| Visibility |
All recipients can see who is in the CC field |
Only the sender and BCC recipients can see who is in the BCC field |
| Purpose |
Keep recipients informed |
Hide recipients from each other |
| Use case |
For adding people who need to be informed, but are not necessarily directly involved in the conversation |
For sending a message to a large group of people without exposing everyone's email address to everyone else |
| Reply-all behavior |
All CC recipients will receive replies by default |
Only the sender and any explicitly CC'd recipients will receive replies by default, BCC recipients will not be visible to other recipients |
Other Important Email Terms You Should Know
There are numerous things you can do with an email, like creating email groups and forwarding, but first, you need to understand the terms to unlock these features.
Subject
You can use the Subject field to tell the recipient about the email by summarizing all the information in a few words. You can then find the email later by sorting by subject.
Reply to All
You can normally reply to a message by hitting the Reply button. This saves the entire thread and the original email so that the information is at your fingertips.
You also have the option to Reply to all. This feature could be used when you are part of a CC list and can send your response to everyone who is involved.
Forward
We refer to the Forward button here using which you can select any email you received and send it to someone else other than the original sender. This Forward feature will save a lot of your time.
Spam
It refers to junk mail. It is the content that is unsolicited and sent to you and thousands of others who are part of the email list. Like Gmail and Outlook, every email service has an assigned spam folder.
Blocklist
In case of more spam messages, a blocklist might come in handy. The block list is a list of permanently blocked addresses. If the senders are identified as spammers, the mail will automatically be sent to the block list but in case it is not then you might have to block the addresses yourself.
We hope that we managed to clear your mind up a little and sort out sending and managing your emails better, you just need to make sure that you don't mix up CC and BCC and use one when the situation demands using the other.
Conclusion
In conclusion, understanding the differences between CC and BCC is important when it comes to composing effective and professional email messages. While both CC and BCC allow you to add additional recipients to an email, they serve different purposes.
CC is visible to all recipients and is useful for keeping everyone in the loop, while BCC is hidden and is useful for maintaining privacy and confidentiality. Proper use of CC and BCC can help ensure that emails are sent to the right people and that sensitive information is kept private.
Frequently Asked Question(FAQs)
1. What is CC and BCC in email with example?
In an email message, CC stands for "Carbon Copy". When you add someone to the CC field of an email, that person will receive a copy of the email along with all other recipients. This means that everyone can see who is in the CC field.
2. Which is better CC or BCC?
CC is better when you want to keep additional people informed and visible to all recipients. This can be useful in situations where multiple parties need to be involved in a conversation or decision-making process.
On the other hand, BCC is better when you want to keep people hidden from each other and their email addresses private. This can be useful when sending a message to a large group of people, or when maintaining privacy in sensitive conversations.
3. Is CC private or BCC?
In an email, CC (Carbon Copy) is not private, as all recipients can see who is in the CC field of an email. This means that if you add someone to the CC field, their email address will be visible to all other recipients of the email.
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy), on the other hand, is private, as the email addresses of recipients in the BCC field are not visible to other recipients of the email. This means that if you add someone to the BCC field, their email address will not be visible to anyone else who receives the email.
4. Is BCC really hidden?
Yes, BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) is really hidden in the email. Recipients added to the BCC field are not visible to any other recipients of the email, and their email addresses are not revealed.
5. Why BCC is not used?
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) is actually used in email, especially in situations where the sender wants to keep the identity and email addresses of recipients private, such as when sending a mass email. However, it's important to use BCC appropriately to avoid any misunderstandings or privacy breaches. Some people may avoid using BCC because they are not familiar with how it works or are unsure when it is appropriate to use.
