replyall

Reply all refers to the action of replying to every person who received the original email, by using the reply-all function in most email clients. The reply is addressed to both the To and CC fields from the original message, while BCC recipients typically remain hidden from the reply. The feature is designed to preserve the context of a group discussion and keep everyone informed of the response.

In practice, reply all is commonly used to share updates, confirm decisions, assign tasks, or solicit input from the entire group. It can help maintain transparency in collaborative projects and prevent miscommunication when a message is relevant to multiple participants.

However, replying to all can also create information overload and privacy concerns. Including people who do not need to be in the loop or forwarding sensitive material to unintended recipients can lead to mistakes, embarrassment, and wasted time. Best practices include: only use reply all when the reply benefits all original recipients, keep the message concise, remove irrelevant or sensitive content, and consider whether replying to the original sender alone would suffice. If the thread has grown unwieldy, starting a new message with only relevant participants may be appropriate.

Technical notes: different email clients implement reply all in slightly different ways, but the general behavior is to include the original To and CC addresses and preserve the subject line, while excluding BCC addresses. Some organizations have policies governing when to use it.

See also: Reply, CC, BCC, email etiquette.