Gmail is introducing verification badges

Google is introducing blue check marks to its email service Gmail to verify the identity of some accounts.

The company said in a blog post on Wednesday that the verification badge will be displayed alongside accounts names of companies that have adopted the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) feature that was introduced in 2021.

BIMI requires senders to use strong authentication and verify their brand logo in order to display a brand logo as an avatar in email.

“Users will now see a checkmark icon for senders that have adopted BIMI. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators,” Google said.

The feature will be important in helping users and email security systems identify and stop spam.

For companies, on the other hand, it will help leverage their brand trust by increasing confidence in email sources.  

It will be rolled out starting May 3.

Gmail joins other digital platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok that have verification badges.

LinkedIn also recently introduced theirs, while Facebook and Twitter have even gone further in recent days to monetise the badges by making users pay to get them.