Gmail pulls a Twitter, adds blue checkmarks to verified accounts

Twitter is going through a lot of changes since it’s been acquired by Elon Musk and while most of these changes don’t make users happy, it looks like other companies took note and decided to implement them into their products.

Google announced this week it has added an extra security layer for Gmail users: blue checkmarks. This is an evolution to BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification), a feature that requires senders to use advanced authentication and verify their brand logo to display it as an avatar in emails.

With the introduction of the new feature, Gmail users will see a blue checkmark for senders that have adopted BIMI. It’s a visual signal that the email you receive is not a scam and you can open it safely without having your computer/phone hacked.

It’s important to note that end users don’t have a setting for this feature. They will simply see the blue checkmark attached to the emails they receive, if they’re coming from a BIMI approved company. For admins, simply follow Google’s guidelines detailed in its recent blog post.

The rollout of the new feature has already begun and should take up to 3 days to show up for everyone. That includes Google Workspace, legacy G Suite Basic and Business users, as well as users with Google Accounts.