Gmail adds blue check mark to verify “reputable” senders

For a long time, with the development and popularity of social networking platforms, the “blue tick” has gradually become one of the most powerful characters on the internet world. It is a manifestation of authenticity and prestige in the virtual cyberspace. We are all too familiar with the appearance of “blue tick” accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now even Gmail .

Over a year ago, Gmail added a blue check mark to verified sender accounts on the platform. In simple terms, when a user receives an email from a Gmail account of a verified address, they will see a blue check mark next to the name in their inbox.

This feature is part of Google’s rollout of a new brand identification technology called Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI). In fact, BIMI has been in limited testing by Google since 2020, but it has only now officially gone live. In addition to the blue tick, BIMI also allows businesses to register their logos for use in emails.

BIMI also allows senders with registered trademarks to verify their brand logo through a third party before displaying it as a Gmail profile picture.

When users hover over the green check mark in an incoming email, a small window will appear with the message “ The sender of this email has confirmed… ”. The window will also include a link to the detailed information page. This way, Gmail users will be able to distinguish fake emails from real emails more easily. In addition, the new feature will not only help users protect themselves better, but also significantly prevent spam, while allowing businesses and organizations to strengthen their brand reputation.

After more than a year of implementing the blue check mark feature to authenticate identity on Gmail service and receiving positive feedback. Now, Google is planning to take this security feature to the next level and apply it to both Gmail application for Android and iOS. Thus, Gmail application users on Android and iOS platforms in the near future will see a blue check mark displayed to the right of the sender's name in emails.

As part of Gmail's BIMI (Brand Message Indication) feature, BIMI also allows senders with registered trademarks to verify their brand logo through a third party before it appears as a Gmail profile picture.

Announcing this change, Google said:

Gmail on the web will now show a verified checkmark for senders who have applied for BIMI with a registered trademark (VMC). In the coming weeks, users will also see these verified checkmark icons when using the Gmail app on Android and iOS (Apple Mail or other mail apps are not supported). Note that this update only applies to VMC.

Some senders may not have a registered trademark but want to demonstrate their legitimacy to recipients. For such cases, Gmail now supports a new type of BIMI certificate called a Common Mark Certificate (CMC). This certificate allows “Those who may not have a registered trademark as required for a VMC to still use BIMI.”

Note that senders can display their brand avatar in Gmail using CMC, but there will be no blue tick like VMC. The blue tick has started rolling out to Android and iOS devices, and it will take about two weeks to reach all users.