How to Add Bcc in an Outlook Meeting Invite

Easy ways to add the privacy that Bcc provides to meeting invite

by Ola-Hassan Bolaji
Ola-Hassan Bolaji
Ola-Hassan Bolaji
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A Computer Engineering graduate, he has spent most of his life reading and writing about computers. He finds joy in simplifying complex topics into simple solutions for PC... read more
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Alex Serban
Alex Serban
Windows Server & Networking Expert
After moving away from the corporate work-style, Alex has found rewards in a lifestyle of constant analysis, team coordination and pestering his colleagues. Holding an MCSA Windows Server... read more
Affiliate Disclosure
  • While it is easy to use Bcc in normal emails, the feature is not available when sending meeting invites on Outlook.
  • You can forward your meeting invite as an iCAL file to use the Bcc feature.
  • Another option is to forward the request from your calendar as plain text.
add bcc outlook meeting invite

Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) is a feature that allows you to send mail to multiple recipients without revealing the email addresses of other recipients. This is unlike Cc (Carbon Copy), which shows recipients the email address of other people that were sent the same mail.

While the Bcc field is available when you are trying to send a normal email message to multiple users on Outlook, the field is noticeably absent when sending meeting invites and appointments.

This is pretty annoying as users are looking to add the privacy that Bcc offers when they send meeting requests too. Fortunately, there are a few workarounds you can apply to add Bcc to your meeting invites, and we will show them in this guide.

Can I BCC a meeting request in Outlook?

As mentioned earlier, the Bcc field is not available when sending meeting invites on Outlook.

However, there are some ways to add the feature when sending meeting invites, as shown in the next section.

How do I add BCC to a team meeting invite?

1. Adding invitees as resources

  1. Launch Outlook and click the Calendar icon in the left pane.
  2. Click the New Meeting option at the top.
    calendar add bcc outlook meeting invite
  3. Now, click the To button in the newly opened Meeting window.
    to
  4. Next, select the recipients to Bcc and click the Resources button. If you don’t have their email addresses on Outlook, you can type it manually.
    resources
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. Finally, compose the meeting details on the new meeting page and click the Send button.

The first method to add Bcc to your meeting invite is to resource attendees, as shown above. This requires you to have an existing list of emails to select from.

But if you can’t add these emails on Outlook, or if it is an email address from an external body, you can type it manually.

2. Forwarding the calendar invite

  1. Launch Outlook and click the New items dropdown.
  2. Select the Meeting option.
    new item
  3. Now, fill in the required fields and enter the meeting details in the text box.
  4. Next, press the Ctrl key + S to save the invite.
  5. From here, click the Calendar icon on the left pane on Outlook.
  6. Drag the newly created invite to the Mail icon on the left pane.
    drag add bcc outlook meeting invite
  7. Finally, enter the details of the recipients to Bcc in the Bcc field and send the invite as text.
    bcc forward

Another option to add the Bcc to email invites on Outlook is to create the meeting and save it on your Calendar before forwarding it to the attendees.

In this case, the email recipients will receive the invite as a text and will not be able to respond as they would to a normal meeting invitation.

3. Using the iCAL file option

  1. Launch Outlook and click the New items dropdown.
  2. Select the Meeting option.
    new item
  3. Enter the details of your meeting.
  4. Now, click the Forward icon under the Action group and select Forward as iCalendar. This will open a new mail page with the meeting attached in iCalendar format.
    forward ical
  5. Finally, enter the email address of the recipients in the Bcc field and send the mail.
    ical add bcc outlook meeting invite

With this, the email message will be forwarded to each of the recipients without showing the email address of others.

The only issue with this option is that the people you sent this invite to will not be able to see any update made to the meeting schedule, just like if you sent a Screen Shot. Also, you won’t be able to track the invite to know if they will attend.

The Bcc field is not normally available when you are sending meeting invites on Outlook, unlike in normal emails. However, you can use a couple of workarounds, like adding the invitees as resources and forwarding the calendar invite.

We explained how to go about this in detail in this step-by-step guide, and one of them should definitely help you add the Bcc to your meeting invite on Outlook.

To conclude, if your Outlook inbox is not updating, check our detailed guide to rectify it.

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