FAQ

BCC — why can't I see that I was BCC'd?

This is a limitation of how email (SMTP) and Resend work, not a bug in inboxes.

When you send an email with BCC recipients through inboxes, the BCC field is stored and displayed correctly on the sender's side. You'll see a “Bcc:” line on outbound emails you sent.

On the receiving side, BCC recipients will not see any indication that they were BCC'd. This happens because:

  1. SMTP strips BCC headers before delivery. This is the fundamental design of BCC — the receiving mail server never sees the BCC header.
  2. Resend's received emails API returns the envelope recipient as the “to” field. When a BCC copy is delivered to your domain, Resend reports the BCC address as the TO recipient.

What works:

  • Sending emails with BCC recipients — stored and displayed correctly
  • Reply-all from a BCC'd email — correctly replies only to the sender

What doesn't work:

  • Seeing “Bcc: you” on emails where you were BCC'd — the data isn't available from the mail provider
  • Seeing the original TO recipients on a BCC'd copy — the received copy only shows your address

This behavior is consistent with how Gmail, Outlook, and other major email clients handle BCC.

I enabled desktop notifications but they're not showing up

Most likely cause: You clicked “Enable” on the in-app prompt, but then clicked “Don't Allow” (or “Block”) on the browser's permission dialog. Once denied, the browser permanently blocks notifications for the site.

To fix it:

  1. Open your browser's site settings for inboxes:
    • Chrome: Click the lock/tune icon in the address bar → Site settings → Notifications → set to “Allow”
    • Safari: Safari → Settings → Websites → Notifications → find the site → set to “Allow”
    • Firefox: Click the lock icon → Connection secure → More information → Permissions → Notifications → clear the “Block” setting
  2. Hard refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R)
  3. Go to Settings → Profile → Notifications and check “Desktop notifications”

To verify your current state, open the browser console and run:

Notification.permission
  • "granted" — notifications should be working. If not, check that your OS allows notifications for the browser.
  • "denied" — follow the steps above to reset.
  • "default" — the browser hasn't been asked yet. Enable notifications in Settings to trigger the prompt.

Desktop notifications may not work in incognito windows. Some browsers expose the Notification API but silently deny permission requests.