Using the "Reply-To" field in email

[Pinback]

Maybe I'm the last person to figure this out, but recently when I sent an email to friends and family (all blind-copied to avoid a rat's nest of overlapping "Reply All" responses), I wanted replies to come to both my wife and me, instead of just me. (Of course, a "Reply All" response would come to both of us if I had her address in the cc: field, but I knew many people would hit "Reply" instead of "Reply All," and for this message I wanted to set the default to make all responses come to both of us when recipients hit "Reply" in their email application.)

I stumbled upon a feature I'd never used before in my many decades of using email: the "Reply To" field. I could put both our email addresses in Reply-To, even though I was the sender, and responses would come to both of us! This avoided the need to forward responses to her and also made it easier for either or both of us to respond to messages and cc the other.

This is not a new feature by any means, but new to me, an old dog who thought he knew all the email tricks. So I'm posting news of this earth-shaking discovery in case it's beneficial to any other DUers. I was using MacOS Mail, so I can't absolutely guarantee that every other email platform allows multiple addresses to be populated in "Reply-To." However, it seems that this should work for most if not all email clients since the "Reply To" field is a standard element in email headers (Wikipedia link).

Here are some references with more detail:

• Receive Email Replies at a Different Address Than You Send From -- Gmail-specific (Lifewire) - https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-a-reply-to-address-in-gmail-1171966


• The "Reply-To:" Field -- Effective Use of Email Header Fields, Part III (Email Newsletter Publishing Strategies) - https://bit.ly/3bv5i2c


• How to Change the “Reply To” Address for Email Messages in Outlook (How To Geek) - https://www.howtogeek.com/298780/how-to-change-the-reply-to-address-for-email-messages-in-outlook/


• How to Add and Change the Reply-To Header in macOS Mail (Lifewire) - https://www.lifewire.com/change-reply-to-header-os-x-mail-1172887


• Using Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail (Mac Observer) - https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Using_Multiple_Reply_Addresses_In_Mail

[efhmc]

1. Thanks.

[Journeyman]

2. Thanks. Always nice to learn something new, especially about something you use all the time . . .