The Concept of CC and BCC in Gmail

 

CC and BCC are two fields that sit next to or below the "To" field at the top of any new message you compose in your inbox. All  three are used to add the email addresses of the people you wish to send your message to. However, they differ significantly in their usage.

The Concept of CC and BCC in Gmail

The concept of BCC( Blind Carbon Copy) and CC (Carbon Copy)  is understood to many, however, what email is visible to what user was an unknown fact fact to me which I recently discovered and am glad sharing it here.

What are CC and BCC in Gmail ?

The early days of email were based on letter writing (electronic mail), and in the same way you would produce two copies of a letter using carbon paper, you could send an email to two people using the CC protocol. Simply, you using the CC filed within your email, you can easily send copies of your email to multiple email addresses.

The BCC field is an enhanced version of CC and fulfills its specific purpose. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy, allowing you to send copies of your email to multiple contacts without revealing the respective email addresses to your recipients. 

What Do BCC ?

• All BCC address are only visible to the Sender
• BCC can see the "To" and "CC" addresses
• BCC addresses will not find their addresses in any BCC field
• One BCC address cannot see or know other BCC addresses.

Conclusions

• To: Field recipients are the audience of the message
• CC: Field recipients are others whom the author wishes to publicly inform of the message (carbon copy)
• BCC: Field recipients are those being discreetly or surreptitiously informed of the communication and cannot be seen by any of the other addressees.