How to avoid CC’ing the Atlantic editor-in-chief in your messages

You are likely not planning a military action in another country, but the accidental inclusion of unintended invitees to a group text, email, or other discussion could still prove a problem—from embarrassment to losing friends, causing a family rift, or even being fired from a job.

The problem arises from two intersecting factors: how Apple and third-party software retain recipients’ information to make it easy to use in future messaging, and how quickly apps have trained us to type a few letters and move on without examining what’s being autocompleted and filled in. This means that you might intend to add “Jeffrey Pixenwald” to a group chat and instead invite “Jenny Hickenlooper” by typing “Je.” It happens.

A great general place to start when inadvertently selecting the wrong person is your Contacts list. This list may contain people you’ve only connected with once years ago. Delete unwanted entries. You can also clear out the macOS Mail app’s list of suggestions, which I explain below in the Mail section.

More generally, consider the following:

• Slow down when selecting contacts from autocomplete suggestions to ensure you read what’s suggested.
• Always double-check recipients before sending a message or email.
• Type the full name for important or sensitive messages rather than relying on autocomplete. This avoids any accidental overlap, even though it’s tedious.

Here is more app-specific advice on how to avoid autocomplete filling in the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of people you didn’t intend to include in your communications.

Messages

When you start typing letters into the To: field in Messages on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, Apple tries to help by ordering the suggestions by how recently you’ve messaged someone. Matches are made by name or email address. This means that the first choice is often the best for the letters you entered, and the top suggestions are almost always sensible.

Following the people with whom you recently interacted, Messages lists all other entries in your contact list (for first name, last name, or email) in alphabetical order by first name.

Messages in iOS and iPadOS shows another list of suggestions following a break with the label “Siri Found in Apps.” You can disable Siri Suggestions in Settings > (Apple Intelligence &) Siri > Apps > Messages.

In macOS, Messages selects the top choice, effectively autocompleting it, and you can press Return to accept it without review. For the safest way to add people, I suggest training yourself to not press Return and instead click the address you want. In iOS and iPadOS, you have to tap to select a recipient, which requires more deliberation.

Mail

Mail similarly provides suggestions ordered by recent interactions and then alphabetically as you start to type. macOS autocompletes the first item as the best match by selecting it. In iOS and iPadOS, as in Messages, you have to tap to select a match. Mail for iPhone and iPad includes Siri suggestions at the bottom, which you can disable via Settings > (Apple Intelligence &) Siri > Apps > Mail.

You can’t control this any further on an iPhone or iPad, but Mail on a Mac has an additional source of suggestions and a way to restrict that list. Choose Window > Previous Recipients. This often lengthy list contains every person who you have emailed in the past with the date of the last time a message was sent from the Mail app to them. You can trim this list to avoid suggestions from it: select or search for individual entries or choose Edit > Select All and click Remove From List. (In the past, some readers have found suggestions continue to appear from this list even after deleting entries.)

Signal

When you begin typing in a name in Signal to add a recipient, the app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac (and other platforms) shows your most recent chat participants first, then an alphabetical listing by first name of all other matches.

The system never selects an addressee for you. Instead, you have to click or tap to select a displayed entry.

The one place Signal can bite you–as it did certain members of the current American administration–is that people’s names and addresses are imported from your contacts unless added manually. A profile image is only shown if that’s found in Contacts. Otherwise, two initials appear, like GF or RL. That can lead you to select someone in haste by noticing their initials and not their full name.

To ensure you have the right name set for a contact, you can add a nickname within Signal that overrides the imported name. Signal doesn’t offer an address book for editing. Instead, you follow this process:

1. Click or tap the New Chat icon to start a new chat.
2. Enter the person’s name and make sure you’re seeing the right person. Select that entry.
3. Click or tap the initials or image and name at the top of the chat area.
4. Click or tap Nickname and add their full name or a descriptive name.
5. Click Save or tap Done.