Microsoft is going to build in Microsoft 365 a function that should counter so-called ‘reply-all storms’.
In addition, hundreds or even thousands of people will reply to the same email, because it was sent with the entire workforce in cc.
The plan is to detect and block situations like this faster. The ‘reply-all storm’ is mainly a problem for large organizations, where someone can accidentally email an entire distribution list.
If those recipients then also press ‘reply all’, you get an inbox nightmare that often prevents you from doing a lot of useful work that day. And Microsoft wants to fix that now.
Microsoft 365 defines such a storm as ten reply-all emails to more than 5,000 recipients within sixty minutes. The function prevents further e-mails from being sent and will in practice block that e-mail thread for four hours.
The feature was first announced in November last year. It has since been rolled out to all Microsoft 365 users.