New feature aims to stop reply-all chains from wrecking your inbox

SEATTLE – Microsoft has a solution to the problem that has annoyed workplaces for decades -- the seemingly endless chain of a reply-all email.

The tech giant now lets customers detect and stop what is being called “reply-all email storms.”

People who have mistakenly sent replies to everyone who was CC’d on an email has resulted in overstuffed inboxes with emails that aren’t necessary. All these messages can also slow down servers.

Microsoft officials said in a statement that blocking these email chains will help benefit big organizations.

The idea came from a 1997 incident at Microsoft when an employee asked to be taken off an email list and sent it to 13,000 others, officials said. Many people responded with “Me too,” resulting in 15 million generates messages. The storm of emails brought the tech company’s servers to a crawl.