To help users distinguish between messages from legitimate senders and those sent by impersonators, Google on Wednesday introduced ‘checkmark icons’ for Gmail users who have adopted its Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), the tech giant has announced.
Why is Google introducing checkmarks for Gmail?
Google announced the feature in an official blog post on Wednesday. It said: “Strong email authentication helps users identify and stop spam, and also enables senders to leverage their brand trust. This increases confidence in email sources and gives readers and immersive experience, creating a better email ecosystem for everyone.
Google shared this screenshot:
What is BIMI?
For Gmail, the feature was introduced in 2021, following a pilot in the previous year. It acts as another layer of security, and to use it, senders must use strong authentication, and verify their brand logos to display the logo as an ‘avatar’ in emails.
Further, BIMI helps email security systems filter spoofed, fishing emails from the legitimate ones.
Availability
Google began rolling out the checkmarks on Wednesday. The feature itself will take up to three days to be fully visible, and will be available to Workspace customers, G Suite Basic and Business customers, as well those with personal Google accounts.
