iOS 16 adds major new upgrade to fight email scams

A new feature has appeared in the latest beta of iOS 16 that will let users see digitally certified logos from official brands in a bid to help fight spam and phishing.

As noted by Charlie Fish on Twitter;

In #iOS16 Apple added support for the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard in the native Mail application.

Beta 2 of iOS 16 was released to developers yesterday, and this new feature is certainly an eye-catcher. Brand Indicators for Message Identification, or BIMI, is a new mail specification that lets brands use their logos within supporting email clients. Once verified, a major brand can use its logo in emails to help reassure the receiver that it is from a trustworthy source and that brands are not being impersonated.

The example discovered here includes an email from Chase and their corresponding logo along with the following note:

Digitally Certified Email This email was verified as coming from the owner of the logo shown and the domain "alertssp.chase.com" Apple uses Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard.

BIMI's website says that support for this standard is coming not only to iOS 16 but also macOS Ventura in Fall 2022, likely when these software iterations are released officially to the public. While Chase is the example seen here, one onlooker noted that other brands including Dominos, UPS, and eBay are also using BIMI, so expect growing support in the months ahead.

The second beta of iOS 16 was released to developers on Wednesday with the usual round of fixes and some updates. Other new additions not included in the first launch is a new LTE iCloud backup service and a new feature that lets users mark SMS messages as junk on some U.S. carriers. iOS 16 will be available as a public beta next month and officially in the fall for customers on all of Apple's best iPhones including iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, as well as the upcoming iPhone 14 when it released in September.