How to automatically forward emails to multiple recipients in Gmail

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On average email users globally have 1.75 email addresses, according to Convince&Convert. Many working adults end up having a “spam email” for subscriptions of all sorts, an “important” email address for sensitive financial transactions, and a corporate/business inbox on top of that.

With all the exponential growth of email accounts in one’s life, comes the responsibility of control not to miss important correspondence. Which makes a user look for the answers to a highly technical question: How to automatically forward emails in Gmail to multiple recipients.

This is your step-by-step guide to all things Gmail forwarding functionality.

Why Forward Emails to Multiple Recipients?

OK, let’s get things straight: you cannot add multiple forwarding addresses and be done with it, as Gmail has a technical limitation. This cloud email service can only allow you to forward to a single user. 

However.

There is a workaround. Users can still forward Gmail to multiple addresses by making an extra step—creating a specific filter for all extra addresses.

On the other hand, this is also an opportunity to use that filter to its full potential: to only forward specific messages if so needed, reducing the amount of memory usage across your accounts.

Why would you need forwarding to start with?

  1. You only choose to have one mail account on your phone but you need to make sure you check all messages on the go if needed – from all of your accounts. On your vacation, for example.
  2. Going offline for a vacation is another classical example of why people enable their email forwarding feature to start with, as the business needs to keep going even though one team member is enjoying their rest. This is when the auto forward Gmail to multiple addresses feature comes in handy – as a few colleagues can keep an eye on the clients of their team members, depending on their shifts. The corporate environment is where users need to do a lot of email forwarding for many reasons.
  3. In private life, you may want to forward specific emails, like some financial notifications for a house you all live in with your family.
  4. Also, you may want to share some of the discounts or local news that come to your loyalty account – so if your family would like to use it – they can use your loyalty account card to take advantage of savings.
  5. Or, you just want to have a single email mission control room – so that you can get new correspondence info in one inbox – without having to check a few email addresses all the time.

Whatever your reason to forward the email to multiple addresses, this is how you do it in Gmail and Workspace.

How to Set Up Automatic Email Forwarding to Multiple Recipients

This is a 2-step process, as you will need to first enable forwarding to one account and then create filters to enable Gmail forward to multiple emails.

Forwarding the Emails in Gmail [Single Recipient Only]

You can only perform this on the desktop version of Gmail, so to enable email forwarding to go to your Gmail account from your computer.

  1. Open Settings by clicking the gear icon in the top right.
  2. When a sidebar with quick settings appears, click See all settings.
  3. Find and select the tab Forwarding and POP/IMAP in the top ribbon of the tabs.
  4. Click Add forwarding address under the Forwarding subtitle at the top of the screen.
  5. Type in the email address you need to forward your email correspondence.
  6. Confirm the email address by clicking Next>Proceed>OK.
  7. The account that you are trying to forward messages to will receive a verification letter at this point. Click the link as prompted in the automatic email to confirm.

  8. Alternatively request the owner of the email account that you intend to forward your emails to send a verification code from the email they receive. Then insert this code into the field that reads Verification Code and press Verify.
  9. Go back to the Settings page for the Gmail account and refresh your browser.
  10. Click back to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
  11. At this point make your choice if you want to keep a copy of the emails in the original inbox or not. You will be presented with the option to Keep mail’s copy in the inbox. So, you need to select Forward a copy of incoming mail to XYZ@gmail.com and make a choice if you want to Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox.
  12. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Now that you have enabled a “forward-to” address and functionality, let’s see how to forward Gmail to multiple addresses.

Enter Filter functionality.

How to Create a Filter to Forward Emails to Multiple Recipients

You can access the filter creation option from the same segment:

Gmail > Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Forwarding

You will see this prompter at the bottom of this short segment:

Tip: You can also forward only some of your mail by creating a filter!

Alternatively, go to the tab to the left of the Forwarding and POP/IMAP called Filters and Blocked Addresses to create a new tab. This is the exact path:

  1. Gmail > Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses.
  2. Click Create a new filter.
  3. Then set some filter condition that applies to any email. For example, the subject line doesn’t have “InsertSomeWeirdLetterCombination” or the email size is less than 999 MB.
  4. Click Create filter.
  5. The filter creation wizard will offer a few alternatives that include Forward it to:.
  6. At this stage either Add a forwarding address or choose from the verified trusted addresses that you have previously added as those accounts that can receive forwarded messages.
  7. Click the Create filter button at the end of the form to confirm.

This filtering option allows you to forward your correspondence to as many forwarding addresses as you wish.

Tips for Forwarding Emails to Multiple Recipients

We recommend users add and verify all possible email accounts to the list of forwarding addresses just in case, as if you don’t always have direct access to an inbox, verification may take time. Remember that you can add multiple forwarding addresses, but you can only forward your emails to a single email without the filtering option.

Another good practice is to make sure your IT department reviews your forwarding and filtering options in a corporate environment regularly or as part of the onboarding offboarding routine.

Even if you are a private Gmail user, review your forwarding settings from time to time to make sure your correspondence is optimized as per your current needs and priorities.

FAQ

Can I Add Multiple Forwarding Addresses in Gmail?

Yes, you can add multiple forwarding addresses in Gmail and get them verified, but you can’t set forwards to these multiple addresses. You can only use one account in this functionality. Users may use the filtering option to enable automatic forwarding to multiple accounts.

Why Forward Emails to Other Accounts?

Corporate users often need to forward their correspondence to other users not to miss a sale or an urgent business even in the absence of one employee for rest or sickness. Other private usage examples include the convenience of checking one account only vs keeping an eye on many.

1 Comment. Leave new

  • Katrine Dicki
    March 28, 2023 7:36 pm

    I actually ended up finding out about this functionality by falling into one of the internet’s rabbit holes – and voila! My vacations are much more enjoyable now – as my 2 people team takes care of all the routine stuff and messages me for anything urgent. It’s pretty convenient!

    Reply

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