Want to send an email without revealing any of the recipients (to each other)? Find out here how to hide email addresses in Gmail and send to undisclosed recipients (plus how to combine hidden BCC recipients with visible CC recipients).
First, You Can See It from the Moon
Compare Asia’s 17 210 000 square miles (44 029 797 m²) to the land area of the Earth’s moon, a calculated 14 647 429 square miles (37 936 667 m²).
Yes, even without Europe added in, Asia alone is bigger in disposable land than the entire moon.
With that amazing insight disclosed, how about un-disclosing something—say, an email’s recipients in Gmail?
How to Hide Addresses in Gmail and Email Undisclosed Recipients
Sending to a group frequently? How to Send a Newsletter in Gmail
Time needed: 5 minutes
To send an email from Gmail to multiple “undisclosed recipients” (or just one, of course) whose email addresses are hidden from all recipients:
- Start a new email message in Gmail.
Gmail keyboard shortcut: Press C to start composing fast.
- Click Bcc near the composition screen’s top right corner.
Keyboard shortcut: The slightly obscure Gmail keyboard shortcut to try is Ctrl Shift B (Windows and Linux) and Command Shift B (Mac).
- Enter all recipients for the message in the Bcc field exclusively.
No “To”, no “Cc”: Do not use the To and Cc fields; Gmail sending to “Undisclosed recipients” automatically only works if all fields except Bcc are empty.
Need to use CC: If you want to add recipients to the Cc field, see below.
Just one: Even if it’s just one recipient, you can put their address in the Bcc field to effectively hide they are the only recipient. - Compose and send the message.
How to Send to Hidden Recipients with Additional (Disclosed) CC Recipients
To send an email to both disclosed and undisclosed recipients, you can follow two routes.
Use BCC for Hidden Recipients
The simple method for adding undisclosed recipients to any email is, of course, to add them to the BCC field.
- Enter all hidden recipients in the BCC field (see above).
- Add To: and CC recipients to the respective fields.
This will hide the BCC recipients without a trace—and no indication that the message has hidden recipients.
Use CC for Visible, BCC for Hidden Recipients
You can also send an email to “undisclosed recipients” and still add visible recipients.
To mix “undisclosed recipients” with visible ones in Gmail:
- Open a new message in Gmail.
- Enter
"Undisclosed recipients" <me@gmail.com>in the To field.
Quotation marks: Do include the quotation marks.
Your email address: Replace me@gmail.com with your email address. - Click Bcc.
- Add all undisclosed recipients to the Bcc field.
- Now click Cc.
- Add all visible recipients to the Cc field.
- Compose and send the message.
All recipients will see an email sent to “Undisclosed recipients” (in the To: field), but will also see the visible addresses in the Cc: field.
How to Hide Recipients in Gmail and Email Undisclosed Recipients: FAQ
What does sending to undisclosed recipients do exactly in Gmail?
When you send an email to hidden recipients in Gmail using the automatic method (only using BCC and an empty To: field), the following happens:
- Gmail specifies a dummy recipient in the To: line for undisclosed recipients.
Email source: In the message, this appears asTo: undisclosed-recipients: ;
- All recipients will see only that: “undisclosed-recipients” (or, depending on the email program, “Undisclosed recipients”) in the To: field.
Is an email to hidden, undisclosed recipients fully standards-compliant?
Yes.
The colon in “undisclosed-recipients:” means a group of addresses follows. This group can be empty.
Above that, RFC 5322, the current standard for internet email messages, would allow for a message not to contain a To: field at all (and only CC or BCC recipients).
(Historically, emails without a To: field or an empty To: field were not allowed.)
Can I use the empty list method manually in Gmail (and add CC recipients)?
No.
Gmail will not let you enter undisclosed-recipients: ; as the To: recipient. It treats an empty group as an invalid email address.
(How to hide email recipients in Gmail tested in a desktop browser; updated February 2024)