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How to Reply All in Gmail

When several people are already on an email thread, Reply All makes sure your response reaches everyone instead of quietly going to just one person.

  1. Open an email that was sent to multiple recipients

    Click to open a message where you can see other recipients listed alongside your own address.

  2. Click the small arrow next to the reply icon

    At the bottom of the email, click the downward arrow (βŒ„) next to the reply icon to expand the reply options.

  3. Choose 'Reply all'

    Selecting Reply all from the expanded menu automatically fills the recipient field with everyone who was originally on the thread.

  4. Double-check the recipient list before sending

    Before hitting send, glance over the To field to make sure no one unnecessary is included in your reply.

  5. Why this is worth knowing

    In a group email conversation, replying to just one person can leave everyone else out of the loop -- Reply All keeps the whole group on the same page with a single response.

Reply vs. Reply All

Gmail's default reply button only ever responds to the single most recent sender, even when a message was originally sent to a longer list of people. That's a sensible default for one-on-one conversations, but on a thread where several people are actively discussing something, using plain Reply instead of Reply All quietly cuts everyone else out of your response, which can lead to confusion, missed decisions, or people asking the same question twice.

Before you click send

Reply All fills in whoever was originally included, which isn't always exactly who should see your specific response. If the thread has grown to include someone who no longer needs updates, or if your reply contains something meant for a smaller subset of the group, it's worth manually removing recipients from the To field before sending rather than assuming the auto-filled list is always correct.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Reply All include people who were only Cc'd?

Yes -- Reply All includes everyone in both the original To and Cc fields, not just the person who sent the most recent message.

Can I still remove someone after clicking Reply All?

Yes, the recipient fields remain fully editable after choosing Reply All, so you can delete any address you don't want to include before sending.