In addition to the radical “home for work” renovation, Google has a further email-related announcement as part of “Productivity and Collaboration” week in Cloud Next ’20: OnAir. Gmail is adding support for verified brand logos as part of a new standard.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification or BIMI (pronounced: Bih-mee) is a pop-up email specification that allows the use of brand-controlled logos within support email clients.
In the case of Gmail, the brand logo will appear in the existing “avatar slot” next to the sender’s name and address in the upper left corner of a message when viewed on the web. On Android and iOS, icons are even more important by appearing directly in your inbox.
BIMI is intended to increase “user trust in the source of emails,” and part of Google’s work to improve the email ecosystem and keep people safe. Meanwhile, brands are getting a new place to display their logo, and will be able to automatically update the brand through a system if adoption grows.
Behind the scenes, the standard takes advantage of Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Compliance (DMARC), which is designed to combat spammers who spoof the “From” address. Incoming messages are verified by authenticating the sender’s domain.
With DMARC, BIMI will allow companies to “validate ownership of their corporate logos and securely transmit them to Google.” Other partners include LinkedIn, Verizon Media (Yahoo / AOL), Fastmail, Twilio SendGrid, Validity, and Vailmail.
We will begin the BIMI pilot in the next few weeks with a limited number of senders and with two Certification Authorities to validate the ownership of the logo: Entrust Datacard and DigiCert. To prepare for the post pilot launch of BIMI and overall to help protect the ecosystem, we encourage organizations to start adopting DMARC.
If all goes well with the Gmail pilot, Google will make verified logos supported by BIMI generally available in the “next few months.”
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