Why does the iPhone Mail app change the order of mail recipients?
April 1, 2015 11:24 AM Subscribe
I've noticed that the iPhone Mail app automatically lists me as the first recipient when I am on the To: line of most emails. When I read the same email in Outlook, however, I am not listed as the first recipient; sometimes I am even the last on the To: line. Why is this happening?
(This is a work phone and I am using Exchange to access work emails.)
In my mind, the recipient listed first is the intended recipient and the person most likely to respond. Even though anyone can respond, there is somewhat of a natural order of appropriate responders. I do not want to accidentally reply over my supervisors or bosses, because I assumed that I was the main recipient.
Because of the auto re-ordering, I will first check the Outlook version of the same email to determine my actual placement. A waste of time, albeit necessary.
Overthinking it a little, but I would like to know why this feature exists? Is there a benefit to seeing my name listed first? (I don't think it has anything to do with being BCC:'ed. Isn't there a feature that notifies you when you are bcc'ed on an email?)
Is it Mail or is it Exchange? Most importantly, is there anyway I can change this feature?
If it helps, I think I first noticed the change when iOS 8.0 was rolled out.
(This is a work phone and I am using Exchange to access work emails.)
In my mind, the recipient listed first is the intended recipient and the person most likely to respond. Even though anyone can respond, there is somewhat of a natural order of appropriate responders. I do not want to accidentally reply over my supervisors or bosses, because I assumed that I was the main recipient.
Because of the auto re-ordering, I will first check the Outlook version of the same email to determine my actual placement. A waste of time, albeit necessary.
Overthinking it a little, but I would like to know why this feature exists? Is there a benefit to seeing my name listed first? (I don't think it has anything to do with being BCC:'ed. Isn't there a feature that notifies you when you are bcc'ed on an email?)
Is it Mail or is it Exchange? Most importantly, is there anyway I can change this feature?
If it helps, I think I first noticed the change when iOS 8.0 was rolled out.
I just sent myself some test messages. I hadn't noticed this, but you're totally right that iOS does always move my own address to the front. However, it does not add it though if it's not there. When I'm CC'd or BCC'd my address does not appear in the To field at all.
My guess as to why they do this is to help you figure out whether you're on the To or CC lists, even when those lists are long.
In my mind, the recipient listed first is the intended recipient and the person most likely to respond
I haven't heard of this convention, and I don't think you'll find many people deliberately ordering the To list with it in mind. However, the point of the CC field is basically to make this kind of recipient priority distinction. That said, I don't think people use any of this stuff consistently enough that it can be relied on. My netiquette recommendation is: The primary criteria for how to respond are the contents of the email and your relationship with the recipients.
posted by aubilenon at 12:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
My guess as to why they do this is to help you figure out whether you're on the To or CC lists, even when those lists are long.
In my mind, the recipient listed first is the intended recipient and the person most likely to respond
I haven't heard of this convention, and I don't think you'll find many people deliberately ordering the To list with it in mind. However, the point of the CC field is basically to make this kind of recipient priority distinction. That said, I don't think people use any of this stuff consistently enough that it can be relied on. My netiquette recommendation is: The primary criteria for how to respond are the contents of the email and your relationship with the recipients.
posted by aubilenon at 12:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for the replies. Two clarifications:
First, I always know if I am on the TO or CC line. I also think most everyone in my organization is clear on the TO/CC primary/secondary convention. This question is only about when I am on the TO line.
Second, I work in a team setting, and I sit on many teams. Sometimes, an email is addressed to my boss, a project lead and myself, all eligible to answer and considered primary, but there is still a hierarchy.
To aublilenon's point, I think the common convention is listing people in order of importance, but this is exactly why it throws me off and how I noticed. Why would someone list me first before my boss, her boss and my supervisor? Turns out it's Mail. Why is Mail listing me first?
And epo, it lists me first, then the remaining TO recipients are ordered correctly as the sender listed them.
posted by alice ayres at 12:27 PM on April 1, 2015
First, I always know if I am on the TO or CC line. I also think most everyone in my organization is clear on the TO/CC primary/secondary convention. This question is only about when I am on the TO line.
Second, I work in a team setting, and I sit on many teams. Sometimes, an email is addressed to my boss, a project lead and myself, all eligible to answer and considered primary, but there is still a hierarchy.
To aublilenon's point, I think the common convention is listing people in order of importance, but this is exactly why it throws me off and how I noticed. Why would someone list me first before my boss, her boss and my supervisor? Turns out it's Mail. Why is Mail listing me first?
And epo, it lists me first, then the remaining TO recipients are ordered correctly as the sender listed them.
posted by alice ayres at 12:27 PM on April 1, 2015
Also tested from gmail to myself on gmail with myself as second recipient.
Google's inbox app preserves the ordering, Apple mail places me first (whch is not in alphabetical order)
posted by epo at 12:28 PM on April 1, 2015
Google's inbox app preserves the ordering, Apple mail places me first (whch is not in alphabetical order)
posted by epo at 12:28 PM on April 1, 2015
From a technical/backend standpoint:
I also think this is Mail attempting to be "helpful," but additionally I'm not aware of anything in the email protocols themselves that requires anything to preserve the order given in the to:/cc:/bcc: fields. As far as I can tell, in principle your client is "allowed" to order those however it wants -- obviously they generally don't, but I think as far as SMTP or Exchange are concerned, everyone in the to: field has equal priority.
From a social engineering standpoint:
I've never knowingly encountered anyone who uses the order in the to: field to indicate recipient priority until you. Obviously it's unlikely that you're the only one, but I don't think it's safe to assume that anyone is trying to convey information that way; or, if you are trying to do so, that your recipients know that's what you're trying to do. I think you have to rely on your outside-of-email knowledge of the heirarchy.
posted by dorque at 12:38 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I also think this is Mail attempting to be "helpful," but additionally I'm not aware of anything in the email protocols themselves that requires anything to preserve the order given in the to:/cc:/bcc: fields. As far as I can tell, in principle your client is "allowed" to order those however it wants -- obviously they generally don't, but I think as far as SMTP or Exchange are concerned, everyone in the to: field has equal priority.
From a social engineering standpoint:
I've never knowingly encountered anyone who uses the order in the to: field to indicate recipient priority until you. Obviously it's unlikely that you're the only one, but I don't think it's safe to assume that anyone is trying to convey information that way; or, if you are trying to do so, that your recipients know that's what you're trying to do. I think you have to rely on your outside-of-email knowledge of the heirarchy.
posted by dorque at 12:38 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Isn't there a feature that notifies you when you are bcc'ed on an email
Emails aren't marked about BCC's in any way. The only way to tell if you're BCC'd is that you're absent from both the To and the CC fields. But that can happen for other reasons too, like email aliases, distribution lists, or forwarding rules. Software doesn't know which of these happened, so it can't notify you when you've been BCC'd
Anyway, the bottom line is:
Yes, it is iOS Mail doing this, and Exchange is acting "normal".
I'm pretty sure there's no way to turn it off. I guess if it's a really big deal, try a different email app, like iOS Outlook or something.
posted by aubilenon at 1:06 PM on April 1, 2015
Emails aren't marked about BCC's in any way. The only way to tell if you're BCC'd is that you're absent from both the To and the CC fields. But that can happen for other reasons too, like email aliases, distribution lists, or forwarding rules. Software doesn't know which of these happened, so it can't notify you when you've been BCC'd
Anyway, the bottom line is:
Yes, it is iOS Mail doing this, and Exchange is acting "normal".
I'm pretty sure there's no way to turn it off. I guess if it's a really big deal, try a different email app, like iOS Outlook or something.
posted by aubilenon at 1:06 PM on April 1, 2015
Just to chime in and say there are indeed other people who order addresses in the "to:" field in order to indicate recipient priority, and not just a few. In some places, it's a matter of company practice. But I also agree that using the "cc:" field can solve this.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:09 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:09 PM on April 1, 2015
Chiming in that prior to this question I'd never heard of priority ordering within the "to" field of an email. If I'm addressed in the email, I feel free to respond, perhaps with a "my limited understanding of the situation is..." or "maybe so and so can chime in here?".
Overthinking it a little, but I would like to know why this feature exists? Is there a benefit to seeing my name listed first?
I don't use an iPhone so it doesn't apply to me, but I could see it being helpful to disambiguate which of my many addresses an email was sent to and whether it was direct or a mailing list I'm on. I expand the "to" field in gmail all the time to try to find my email address and see which one it was sent to.
posted by losvedir at 1:12 PM on April 1, 2015
Overthinking it a little, but I would like to know why this feature exists? Is there a benefit to seeing my name listed first?
I don't use an iPhone so it doesn't apply to me, but I could see it being helpful to disambiguate which of my many addresses an email was sent to and whether it was direct or a mailing list I'm on. I expand the "to" field in gmail all the time to try to find my email address and see which one it was sent to.
posted by losvedir at 1:12 PM on April 1, 2015
Just a note on "Why"
The iPhone app has much more limited space to display the contents of the "to:" field. But I think for most users (myself included) knowing "who" or more precisely "what email address" something was sent to is more important than the order of the recipients.
Note I can get emails sent to me that come through a group alias, or one of several email aliases (jobs@example.com, contact@example.com - all these end up in my inbox). So there's important information for many users that is likely more important than the order of the recipients.
I should note. There's a lot of really good email apps for the iPhone. Cloud Magic, Boxer and a newly released Outlook app for iOS many of them better (IMHO) then the native app. I use Cloud Magic. One of these might provide the solution to your problem.
posted by bitdamaged at 1:52 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
The iPhone app has much more limited space to display the contents of the "to:" field. But I think for most users (myself included) knowing "who" or more precisely "what email address" something was sent to is more important than the order of the recipients.
Note I can get emails sent to me that come through a group alias, or one of several email aliases (jobs@example.com, contact@example.com - all these end up in my inbox). So there's important information for many users that is likely more important than the order of the recipients.
I should note. There's a lot of really good email apps for the iPhone. Cloud Magic, Boxer and a newly released Outlook app for iOS many of them better (IMHO) then the native app. I use Cloud Magic. One of these might provide the solution to your problem.
posted by bitdamaged at 1:52 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
The iPhone app has much more limited space to display the contents of the "to:" field. But I think for most users (myself included) knowing "who" or more precisely "what email address" something was sent to is more important than the order of the recipients.
Yes, exactly this. I want to know if I'm a primary recipient or just CC'ed as an "FYI", and I want to know if it was to my primary work email, a personal account, or what. I find the iOS convention helpful.
(As an aside, if you're stuck on as many teleconferences as I am, you'll notice that WebEx also reorders participants to put you at the top. Very confusing when someone says "OK lets go down the list in order for updates...")
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:29 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yes, exactly this. I want to know if I'm a primary recipient or just CC'ed as an "FYI", and I want to know if it was to my primary work email, a personal account, or what. I find the iOS convention helpful.
(As an aside, if you're stuck on as many teleconferences as I am, you'll notice that WebEx also reorders participants to put you at the top. Very confusing when someone says "OK lets go down the list in order for updates...")
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:29 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I agree with the "it's a small screen and many people check the To and CC fields to see if they were sent the email, copied on the email or blind copied on the email because depending on which of the three possibilities will depend on how the email is interpreted" idea.
I can't stand BCC'ing someone and then they hit the dreaded Reply All button and everything hits the fan. At work with some people, I refuse to BCC and instead will forward the sent email and explicitly say "I didn't want to CC you but I think you should be aware, please do not forward or reply to this email".
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:36 PM on April 1, 2015
I can't stand BCC'ing someone and then they hit the dreaded Reply All button and everything hits the fan. At work with some people, I refuse to BCC and instead will forward the sent email and explicitly say "I didn't want to CC you but I think you should be aware, please do not forward or reply to this email".
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:36 PM on April 1, 2015
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Perhaps Exchange is doing the reordering, you'd have to try a different mail client to know.
Is the list of recipients alphabetically sorted?
posted by epo at 11:58 AM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]