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Gmail now offers a new checkmark for emails enabled with Verified Mark Certificates and BIMI

May

16

2023

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Written by: 

Chris Bailey
  &  
Kirk Hall

Time to read

Written by: 

 & 
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Entrust Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) are digital certificates that enable organizations to create a more immersive and personalized email experience by displaying their registered trademark logo in the avatar slot alongside emails. This helps them elevate their brand and stand out in their prospects’ crowded inbox. Because VMCs are linked with DMARC technology, they also potentially reduce email spoofing.

Entrust started working on VMCs in June 2017. Entrust is proud to have issued the world’s first VMC (in Sept 2019), performed a pilot with Gmail (in July 2020), and issued the world’s first Government Mark Certificate (in March 2023). Entrust has also partnered with Red Sift to offer organizations an integrated BIMI solution to enhance their email security and boost their brand recognition in the inbox.

Now, Gmail has included an additional benefit to email senders and users in the Gmail desktop web browser UI – a new checkmark icon that proactively indicates the sender of the email has verified that it owns the domain and the logo displayed in the avatar slot. This new checkmark is only available when DMARC and VMC are both implemented.

This first image shows how the new checkmark icon will appear in the Gmail application “detail message” view.  The checkmark is shown in white against a blue badge, to the right of the VMC logo and the sender’s display name:

Email name with checkmark

Additionally, there’s a new tool tip that displays the following confirmation text when a user hovers over the checkmark.

Email name with checkmark and tool tip

As you see, the tool tip message confirms that the email sender has verified that it owns its email domain and logo as specified in the VMC.

Gmail is actively rolling out this VMC checkmark icon now, so all desktop web browser Gmail users should see these new icons soon. Gmail has not yet announced how this might appear in mobile environments but Entrust expects there will be coordination of Gmail UIs across their other environments.

This checkmark icon is a good visual cue for recipients to identify verified email senders. Entrust strongly supports this new VMC enhancement and believes it will be embraced by email senders and users.

If you're interested in getting a VMC to take advantage of this new checkmark icon in Gmail, contact us at [email protected] or visit us at www.entrust.com/vmc.

ChrisBailey
Chris Bailey
Vice President, Trust Services
Chris Bailey is the VP of Trust Services for Entrust. Bailey is a co-creator of Verified Mark Certificates and Government Mark Certificates, used to convey logo and identity information in messages. He is also the co-creator of Extended Validation Certificates and Domain Validated Certificates, used to secure TLS/SSL connections. Bailey also co-created the first publicly trusted PDF signing certificate with Adobe. Having served in the industry since 1998, Bailey is a current and founding member of industry standard groups the CA/Browser Forum and the PKI Consortium, where he continues to actively promote industry best practices and education.
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Kirk-Hall-headshot
Kirk Hall
Director, Policy and Compliance – SSL
Kirk Hall is Director of Policy and Compliance – SSL for Entrust’s certification authority. Hall is a co-creator with Chris Bailey of Verified Mark Certificates and Government Mark Certificates for email and of Extended Validation Certificates, used in TLS/SSL connections. Hall is also a current and founding member of industry standard groups the CA/Browser Forum and the PKI Consortium. He has worked with Entrust since 2016.
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