Brand logos authenticated in Gmail will be rolled out over the next few weeks

Brand logos authenticated in Gmail, a security feature first announced last July, will roll out over the next few weeks, Google said Monday. The functionality is enabled by the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard, for which Google joined the working group in 2019.

The idea is for an organization’s logo to appear in your inbox when it sends you an authenticated email using the DMARC standard to reduce the likelihood that you open and act on an email. -mail pretending to be a legitimate source. Ideally, authenticated brand logos will work as a verified badge that you might see on social media that tells you that an account is actually owned and operated by the entity it claims to represent.

Here’s how it works behind the scenes, according to Google:

Organizations that authenticate their emails using Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) and deploy DMARC can provide their validated brand logos to Google through a Verified Brand Certificate (VMC). BIMI relies on trademark verification authorities, such as certification authorities, to verify logo ownership and provide proof of verification in a VMC. Once these authenticated emails have passed our other anti-abuse checks, Gmail will begin displaying the logo in the existing avatar slot.

Gmail users won’t have to do anything to see the authenticated brand logos, according to the company.