What Is BIMI?

Brand indicators for message identification, or BIMI, is an email standard for authenticating users and displaying brand logos. Its purpose is to authenticate organizations, prevent email fraud and enhance email delivery.

Who Supports BIMI Currently?

As I mentioned earlier, Yahoo and AOL are currently the only email clients supporting BIMI. However, Google’s BIMI pilot will launch soon, and other email providers indicate their interest in doing so in the future as well.

When Will Google’s BIMI Pilot Take Effect?

There isn’t a specific date listed in Google’s announcement. According to the official release, they’ll launch the BIMI pilot “in the coming weeks” for a limited number of senders.

How Should I Prepare for This Change?

In general, enabling domain-based message, authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC) is always a good idea. It’s a great way to help secure your organization’s email ecosystem. However, implementing DMARC is also a requirement for Google’s post-pilot launch.

So, if you haven’t already put DMARC to use in securing your email, then it’s time to get the ball rolling. This way, when VMC/BIMI is ready for widespread usage, you don’t get caught unprepared.

How Do I Implement BIMI for My Organization?

To get BIMI to work, you’ll need to:

Create and configure your BIMI record (this is a text record that’s stored on a DNS server, much like SPF or DKIM),

Validate your organization’s domain (using the DMARC standard with a policy of “p=quarantine” or “p=reject”), and

Validate your logo using a VMC.

That’s it!

What Are the BIMI Logo Specifications?

To validate your logo for the BIMI standard, you need to format it in a specific way. According to the BIMI Working Group website:

The logo must be square, must be saved as a version of the Scaled Vector Graphic (SVG) format.  Specifically, the SVG logo must follow the restrictions defined by the SVG Tiny 1.2 profile published by the W3C in 2008. The logo cannot include any external links.

How Do I Get a VMC?

That’s a great question, and I wish I had a better answer for you. While VMCs for organizations are on the horizon, they’re not available yet for purchase. Just keep an eye out for them to be generally available in the near future.