Gmail will show company logos on authenticated mailers

Gmail will soon show company logos on senders if Google can authenticate the sender. For example, a user must be able to clearly recognize that an email actually comes from a bank when the bank’s logo is with the sender.

Gmail will use Brand Indicators for Message Identification to display company logos. Within this BIMI standard, a company’s logo is only displayed if the mail provider can confirm that the company is actually the body that sends the mail and that it is not a malicious person trying to imitate a company.

BIMI does this by letting companies authenticate their emails with Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, or dmarc. Companies and organizations must authenticate their mails with Sender Policy Framework, also known as SPF, or with Domain Keys Identified Mail, also known as DKIM. Then they can use dmarc. They can then provide their validated, trademarked logos with a Verified Mark Certificate to Google.

Once companies or organizations meet these requirements and pass all of Google’s anti-abuse checks, Gmail will display the company logo where avatars now appear. In the smartphone app, users can already see the logo in the inbox, in the web version users must first click through to an email.

Gmail users don’t have to do anything to see the company logos. Google says it plans to implement the feature in Gmail within the next few weeks. This mail service is therefore not the first to support BIMI; Yahoo mail already does this.

The Bank of America logo that will soon be shown in Gmail thanks to BIMI