"Reply" to me in Outlook

Question

"Reply" to me in Outlook

Darren Bastyan 25

Hi there, I am hoping someone can help:

When I am in an email conversation with someone, I often want to "reply" to the last message sent. If the last message sent was from me, pressing reply composes a message with me as the recipient, rather than the other person in the conversation. How can I change this behaviour, so that clicking reply composes an email to the person I am speaking with?

Many thanks!

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SokiGuo-MSFT 31,826 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-08-31T06:53:40.9766667+00:00

Hi @Darren Bastyan

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back. If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as an answer. Warm thanks.

Answer accepted by question author

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SokiGuo-MSFT 31,826 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-08-31T06:53:40.9766667+00:00

Hi @Darren Bastyan

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back. If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as an answer. Warm thanks.

Answer 1

SokiGuo-MSFT 31,826 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @Darren Bastyan

The Reply option is to reply only to the sender. To send the message to someone who isn't on the To or Cc line, please select Forward. Another alternative is to manually change the recipients when you reply to the message. More information, please refer to: Reply to or forward an email message - Microsoft Support.

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Hope this helps!

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Darren Bastyan 25 Reputation points

2023-08-31T11:21:45.1566667+00:00

Hi there, thank you for your reply. I understand what you are saying, but this is not addressing my question. It is standard practice in other email systems to recognise that if you are replying to your own message, you do not want to send this to yourself but to the other person in the chain. Can I infer from your response that Outlook does not use this logic?

Many thanks
SokiGuo-MSFT 31,826 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-09-01T08:15:22.6533333+00:00

Hi

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid the Outlook reply function does not use the logic you described. In Outlook, the default replies are autofill on the original sender. You choose to reply to everyone or select the reply option to manually change the recipients.
Darren Bastyan 25 Reputation points

2023-09-01T14:12:04.98+00:00

Thank you for clarifying and explaining that I am not missing anything.
Mark Simon 0 Reputation points

2025-06-21T17:40:41.7533333+00:00

Is there a way to get Microsoft to add this as an option? Maybe the "Reply" button could change to "Reply to Myself" in this situation, or a reminder could pop up, or there could be an option in the Composing settings such as "In a two-person conversation, Reply always goes to the other person in the conversation". There are tons of arcane options in the settings, this should be higher up on the list.
Vipin 0 Reputation points

2026-10-15T13:56:54.3566667+00:00

Actually, I came here to find a solution for the same issue, and it is surprising that even after 3 years, this logic is not changed. I don't know why this can't be done as an option. Many times, I accidentally send messages to myself when doing a follow-up.