Gmail, building on its adoption of Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) in 2021, has added a blue checkmark for brands that are using BIMI.  

Recipients who click the icon will see a message that says, “The sender of this email has verified that they own google.com and the logo in the profile image.” 

The purpose is to build confidence in the sender’s email. 

“Strong email authentication helps users and email security systems identify and stop spam, and also enables senders to leverage their brand trust,” a Google Workspace post explains. 

It adds, “This increases confidence in email sources and gives readers an immersive experience, creating a better email ecosystem for everyone.  

BIMI allows senders of authenticated emails to include their brand logos in emails. It is also being supported by such vendors as Fastmail, Mailchimp, Validity, Proofpoint, Twilio SendGrid, Yahoo! and Valimail. 

Google advises companies, “To take advantage of BIMI for your outgoing emails to Gmail and other platforms, ensure that your organization has adopted DMARC, and that you have validated your logo with a VMC, issued by a Certification Authority such as Entrust or DigiCert.” 

 

The blue icon is intended to reassure recipients that the brand email is valid.