Gmail is the Latest to Introduce Blue Verified Checkmarks

A blue Checkmark will soon be available next to select senders' names on Gmail by Google. The company announced that it is mainly for verifying the user's identity. Companies that have already adopted the BIMI feature of Gmail will get the new blue checkmark. The term BIMI represents Brand Indicators for Message Identification.

The BIMI feature rolled out in 2021. It needs senders to use powerful authentication. Besides, it helps to verify their brand logo for displaying a brand logo as an avatar in emails. As a user, you can see a checkmark icon for senders adopting the BIMI feature. According to Google, the update helps users to identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators.

Why is it important?

With the help of this strong email authentication, you can identify spam & stop it. The same thing goes for the email security systems. It allows senders to leverage their brand trust. While it boosts confidence in email sources, it can also give readers an immersive experience. Thus, it can generate a better email ecosystem for everyone.

Admins:

Your first task is to go to the Help Center to learn more about the setup process of the BIMI. If you want to take the benefits of BIMI for your outgoing emails to Gmail & other platforms, your company needs to adopt DMARC. It is necessary to validate your logo with a VMC, which a Certification Authority like Entrust or DigiCert issues.

End users: No end user setting is there for this feature.

Rollout pace:

The full rollout started on May 3, 2023. You can see there are 1–3 days for feature visibility.

Availability:

• The feature is available to Google Workspace customers, legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. 
• In addition, it is available to users with personal Google Accounts. Google introduced BIMI in 2020 for Gmail. 

Its core functionality is to enable organizations & vendors so that they can claim ownership of respective businesses. However, it was updated with more effective security measures. But, it failed in its mission and what it wanted to achieve.

The company now wants to take this a notch further and keep people more concerned than before. So, Google adds a blue checkmark in Gmail after the sender's name. It means that those senders have verified their legitimacy through BIMI. It also indicates that the specific person is the original email owner in your inbox.

So, when you receive a new email from any company or a business, each verified sender has its official logo with a blue checkmark. Once you hover over the checkmark, you can see a floating pop-up. It notifies that the sender owns the domain and the logo.

Conclusion:

For most end users, it is an update which will soon be available. If you have admin rights, it is possible to visit the official Google Workspace Admin blog to learn how you can verify your business with BIMI. Gmail has already begun rolling out of the new blue checkmark update.