If senders of unsolicited bulk emails to Gmail users don't follow the new Gmail email sender criteria, they will start to witness an increase in message rejections in April.

New Guidelines for Bulk Emailing Gmail Accounts

New regulations will soon protect Gmail users from unsolicited bulk emails, as I made clear in an article I wrote for Forbes on Tuesday. It was announced at the time that certain senders of bulk emails for marketing purposes had begun to get error notices about some messages that they had sent to Gmail accounts. But according to a Google representative, those particular errors—550–5.7.56—were "a product of pre-existing authentication requirements" rather than being brand-new.

Additionally, Google has stated that it will "start rejecting a fraction of non-compliant email traffic, and we’ll steadily raise the rejection rate” as of April 1. According to Google, for instance, "a percentage" of the remaining 25% of traffic that does not comply with the new email sender authentication rules would be discarded if 75% of it did. What that proportion will be is yet unknown. Google does state that the new regulations will be implemented in a "gradual and progressive" manner.

With transitory issues affecting a "small percentage of their non-compliant email traffic" this month, it seems that this gradual approach has already begun. Additionally, Google states that bulk senders will have until June 1st to "implement one-click unsubscribe in all commercial and promotional messages."

Emails will only be rejected from personal Gmail accounts.

These changes will only affect bulk emails sent to specific Gmail accounts. Mass email senders—those who send five thousand or more emails every day to Gmail accounts—will have to verify their emails in addition to making sure they "avoid sending unwanted or unsolicited email." Regardless of the number of subdomains utilized, emails sent from the same principal domain count against the 5,000 message limit. The domain might be classified as a permanent bulk sender after reaching the limit only once.

These standards do not apply to messages sent to Google Workspace accounts, but senders—including those who use Google Workspace—must abide by the updated requirements.

More Control And Better Security For Gmail Users

The rules are being put in place to "boost sender-side security and increase the control users have over what gets into their inbox even more," a Google official told me. As bad actors often take advantage of authentication flaws, it should provide the receiver peace of mind that the sender of the email they receive is, in fact, that person or organization. "Meeting these requirements should help senders reach those who want their messages more effectively, with diminished risk of spoofing and hijacking from bad actors," the spokesman says in closing.