Twitter's blue ticks may have lost their credibility now that anyone with $8 can sign up for one but Gmail users are set to gain verified status in a bid to show if a sender is “legitimate”. It's all part of Google's efforts to cut down on spam and scams so that users can trust that emails from BIMI-verified senders are who they say they are and can thus be trusted.
BIMI verification, in case you are wondering, is short for Brand Indicators for Message Identification system which Google adopted back in 2021 to confirm a sender's identity and verify their brand logo which can then be used as an avatar in emails. The blue verification checkmark will sit alongside the brand's avatar to help “users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators”. When a cursor hovers above the blue checkmark a box will appear to say the following:
“This sender of this email has verified that they own google.com and the logo in the profile image”
Combining the brand logo and blue verification checkmark should increase user confidence when receiving emails from a brand, and perhaps increase engagement.
The rollout should be complete by May 6, after which anyone with a personal or business Gmail account should see the checkmarks when an email from a verified sender arrives in the Gmail inbox. If it doesn't have a checkmark, it's likely to be a phishing attempt.
