How do I get an icon in Google Inbox? [closed] - email

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I receive e-mails from various senders, and when I view them in Google Inbox, either on inbox.google.com, or on the Android App, some have an icon in a circle next to them... others just have a letter.
BitBucket, for example, has a nice icon when they send me an e-mail:
The question:
Does Google Inbox fetch this picture with some kind of G+ magic, or are certain e-mail headers involved here?
How do I implement this in my own solutions when sending out e-mails?

ReturnPath has a detailed blog post about how they did it: https://blog.returnpath.com/creating-profile-image-gmail-subscribers/
Highlights from their post excerpted below:
Because our reply-to email address was set up as an alias for people
to email ... we had to turn that reply-to email address into an
actual [Google] account.
Add logo as profile picture for Google Account.
Ensure that your DMARC record is built.
If in doubt, talk to your ESP.
I am part of Stack Overflow Marketing department; we haven't tried this yet, but it is on my email to-do list.

According to MarketingLand.com
Display Your Logo As The From: Address
One of the great things about the new Inbox by Google is that it is
more visual. The sender of an email is displayed by an icon rather
than a plain text From: address. This is similar to Gmail’s Grid View
and works by:
Having a verified Google+ business account
Authenticating with SPF and DKIM
Registering with Google

The official solution is to reference a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) in your BIMI record. This handles all of your email addresses at once. Your logo needs to be registered as a trademark, and you will need to purchase a VMC from DigiCert or Entrust. The cost to register a trademark is roughly $660, plus attorney fees, and the cost to purchase a VMC is $1,499 per year.
However, there is a free alternative solution for anyone who can't afford a VMC.
Create a Google account with your company's email address.
Change the profile picture to your company's logo.
Wait up to 48 hours for the logo to become visible in the inbox.
Do not create the Google account using the "To manage my business" option. This account type isn't able to change its profile picture, and the account type can't be changed after its created.
For everyone else:
First, you will need complete the BIMI specification. Then, you will need to complete any additional requirements that each email service provider may have to display the logo in their inbox. This tutorial walks you through the process and explains everything you need to know.

I see this in a mail from a sender with a hotmail account. So it is not necessary to use a gmail account on the sender side.

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Yahoo mail rejects my mails - Error 554 Message not allowed [closed]

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I need some help with a problem I'm facing with Yahoo mail. To summarize, here's my situation:
I have a simple e-commerce site with some users signed up. Some of them, uses Yahoo mail. When they buy an item, an email is automatically sent to them with the purchase details and a link to: https://example.com/item/item_id.
I used outgoing SMTP GMail server. The problem: Yahoo (only Yahoo) is rejecting my emails. The reason: "554 Message not allowed - [PH01] Email not accepted for policy reasons. Please visit https://help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster/SLN5067.html [120]". I have this same issue if I try to send an email with a link to my site even directly from a Yahoo mail.
Searching in Yahoo forums, I found this post, in which the user who ask, has the same problem, but the moderator of the site gives a solution that (to me) doesn't make much more sense.
Does anyone have an idea of what can I do? I need to be able to send mails because I'm in production and I need this mails.
I will be so gracefully for your help!
Regards!
It's because Yahoo thinks the email you sent was a phishing attempt. Try sending a simple email with nothing fancy and see if it goes through. Theirs's probably something in the HTML it doesn't like.
I have found the solution.Yahoo rejects email if you use any numeric value in email URls like (444email.png) or any image name with numeric values.

Sending Gmail Schema Actions works from Gmail Scripts but not Mailgun [closed]

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I'm trying to send an email with a Gmail Schema embedded. Currently, there is a restriction that says the schemas will only be visible if you apply to be whitelisted, but you can send emails from yourself to yourself to test.
I followed Google's scripts tutorial and was able to get myself an email. When I sent the exact same HTML email via mailgun, however, the Action does not become available in the inbox view.
Email sent via Google Scripts
vs
Email sent via Mailgun
According to Google's requirements, we require DKIM, but from the headers it looks as if Mailgun provides them. Mailgun clears out whitespace with =2Ds, but the Google Script doesn't.
Any ideas? I've got a pending application for getting whitelisted, but in the meanwhile I'd like to be able to develop and iterate.
Google actions will work if you send an email to yourself; but aside from that, they will not work until your pending application has been approved and activated.
Even then, in your application it's required that you specify the address and domain that will be sending the emails, and that you have the proper authentication. So even after you are approved, they will only work if you send from the domain and email address you requested approval for and as long as you still have the proper authentication measures in place.

iOS access recent emails

I know this is likely to be answered "sorry buddy", but is there a way i can access my recently sent emails from another iOS app? I really don't need the contents of the emails just the addresses. Basically if you haven't stored the contact information in your address book, I still want to be able to pull those addresses.
For example in the email app, when you compose a new email, as you start typing in an email address it will try to autofill with recently sent/received email addresses. I'm trying to mimic this behavior.
Point me in the right direction if there is already a stack overflow question about this.
No, there is not API that will allow this.
Apps can't acces other apps data since they are sandboxed.
Given the quick answers I received confirming my suspicion that this can't be done, I'm thinking I will just provide a way people can set up email accounts the way the built-in mail app does it. By that I mean I will allow people to select from the major web-based mail providers like gmail, yahoo mail, .. then also allow them to create a mail account with their mail server (address, username, password, port, etc.)
It's kind of overkill since I just want their recently used email addresses, and will scare off people who don't want to give access to their personal mail, but if its all i can do then so be it.

Why is email activation useful? [closed]

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I just want to ask you why is email activation useful. I mean when you register on a website, many ask you to activate your account by email. Is this for preventing spam, or just for websites to be sure you entered a real email address, to send you emails in the future? If it is for spam, how is that preventing spam, cant bots access mail, or what?
EMail activation is primarily used to ensure that you're signing up with a "real" email address, and also one that you have access to (and therefore, presumably, are the legitimate "owner" of the email address).
This enables the website to be able to contact you at some later date since it now has a legitimate email address for you, the user. This can be used for password resets, or general communication etc.
EMail activation also effectively prevents you from signing up your friend/enemy even though you know their email address, unless you also have access to their email account, which is unlikely.
This is mostly used to stop one person from registering another person's email address with a site in order to generate spam from the site to the innocent victim. Most website's that employ such "email validation" will ignore sign-up requests unless they are "verified", usually by clicking a "secret" link or entering a "secret" code back on the website that is originally sent in the email message.
Many legitimate website users are sometimes distrustful of giving their "real" email address to websites for fear that they themselves will recieve spam from the website. Many times, this depends upon the user's trust of the website that they are visiting.
To this end, there are a number of services (such as Mailinator, SpamGourmet, and many others) that legitimate and non-legitimate users alike can employ to provide a "real" email address that is accessible by the user, yet also disposable and temporary to allow the user to ensure that they recieve no spam to their real email address.
This, to some degree, can defeat the effectiveness of an "email validation" system employed by a website, since the website now cannot guarantee that the user (identified by the email address) is "genuine" (i.e. it's not a "throwaway" email address). To this end, many website will prevent users from registering with an email address on a known "disposable" domain.
It verifies the supplied e-mail address and also prevents registering somebody else for an account or mail-list.
At least: If you forget your password, a password reset link can be sent to that email address.
There are many reasons
That way you can make sure password recovery can be done
You can be sure someone will not register someone else email to spam him
You will be protected from spambot
I think its for both , i.e to avoid spams and to make sure that you have entered a valid email address that you have access to
Well, I suppose the main reason is spam prevention and password retrieval, but if your users do something illegal, you might want to identify them.
It sure helps to ensure a valid email addresses but also helps to avoid bots that automatically register and then proceed to spam forums etc.
I'd say it's a mechanism to keep "one-stop users" away, as you have to enter a valid email adress which you have to be able to check to gain access to the website.

Setting up a no-reply email address with Google Apps [closed]

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I have my domain's email set up with Google Apps, and I am interested in sending automated emails (when users register, for example) with the From and/or Reply-To field being "no-reply#example.com". I have a few questions pertaining to how this is done:
Should I actually set up a user in Google Apps named "no-reply"?
If not setting up a "no-reply" user, should I log in with a real address (e.g.: "support#example.com") and send the email as being from "no-reply#example.com" instead? Or should I simply use the Reply-To email header?
If it's necessary to use the Reply-To header, is there a way to block the true From address (i.e.: the username I used to log into Google's SMTP server)?
Yes, you should setup a separate noreply address on your email server.
There are excellent reasons why you should set up a no-reply email address.
Why is it important to have a no-reply on bulk emails?
Many of the recipients of the email will try to hit 'reply' and they will have a multitude of reasons for doing so. Often, it is not sensible to have all of these going to a single representative at your company. Furthermore, many emails from bulk lists will be bounced back. You don't want to have to sift through these in order to find legitimate questions from your mail outs.
The best way to respond to questions rather than replying to bulk emails, is to have the recipients direct their questions to appropriate response emails either through their usual contact or via your company website.
What if recipients DO hit the reply button?
The email originator for the bulks should not just silently swallow the replies. Many companies do this and as a result, legitimate replies are ignored without any indication to your client or potential client and they, feeling neglected, go elsewhere for business.
The originating email account should be set up with an auto-responder explaining that the email was not processed and suggest alternative ways of contacting your company.
In gmail this can be done by setting up a Vacation responder with no last day. You can find the Vacation responder feature under the General tab of the account settings.
Avoid having extra accounts by setting up no-reply as a group that restricts users from outside your domain sending to it.
Unless you can think of a really good reason for it, I would suggest that you send your emails from support# rather than no-reply#.
The whole reason for a support# email address is to receive comments and feedback from your userbase, and if you're sending them emails why bother making it hard for them? If they can just reply to the email you'll receive way more feedback that way.
I suggest you set up a "Nickname" alias ( Manage Domain > Users > edit user > Add Nickname ). Then create a filter that sends any reply to that nickname straight to trash or spam.
Just set up a "no-reply" account. It won't hurt anything, people will still try to send stuff to it, and it will serve your purpose.
As for the latter two questions, it depends.
If you're sending these e-mails as a part of an automated script (i.e. forum registration) just use the "no-reply" accounts credentials. Log in periodically to make sure you aren't getting legit delivery errors (as opposed to the jokers that use fake e-mail addresses) or other odd behaviour.
If you're not sending these e-mails as a part of an automated script, it depends. If you also manage a support address (support#example.com, staff#example.com, etc.) you may want to send on behalf of, and use the reply-to. But this part is a little more subjective, and really depends on your setup.
I don't know if this will help or not, but IIRC, with gmail you can do something like
name+something_else_here#domain.com
Then, set up a filter so that emails with that "something_else_here" part go past the inbox to a label.
Does that help?
I think creating a user named no-reply is a bad approach. An alias or a restricted group is a much neater and functional solution IMHO. Also, google apps cost is based on user number.
A cool way to handle this would be using the vacation setting in GMail to send an automated response back on the no-reply email address. The vacation reminder would then remind users that this is an unmonitored email address.
I think the right thing to do is setup a filter that sorts your mailer-daemon messages into a special folder (Or trash if you so desire.) Or, like other comment have suggested, use a separate mail address.
noreply is good to indicate to people that this isn't an address you check, but it's not really the solution to dealing with bounce mail. In fact it's more likely your mail will end up in spam filters because your attempt at sender obfuscation will just look like spam to the receiving host.
You should create a noreply user. But use it as a spam mail (when registering unknown sites) and a mail for testing.