Important Changes to Email Requirements for Gmail and Yahoo! Starting February, 2024

From February 2024, both Gmail and Yahoo! will introduce a new set of requirements for senders. In this way, they aim to better protect their users' inboxes from spam.

The measures are primarily aimed at senders of at least 5000 messages per day, but are strongly recommended for everyone.

Starting in 2024, you can gradually expect delays in delivery if you do not meet the requirements. From April onwards, email that does not meet the requirements will gradually be rejected. The requirements will be increasingly enforced.

In a blog post, Google has provided more details. Here, we will outline what the requirements are and how you can comply with them.

Implement SPF and DKIM

Validating the sender is the most important measure of the changes. Therefore, implement both DKIM and SPF for the sender's domain name (From):

  • Use DownNotifier validation to check if SPF and DKIM are already present.
  • To add SPF, create a DNS record on the sender's domain name (email sender). The DNS record contains the IP addresses of the servers allowed to send email for this domain name. Our email tools can help you compose the DNS record. Remember to add all servers that send email on behalf of this domain.
  • Unfortunately, an SPF record is not sufficient for validation. If an email is forwarded, the SPF validation disappears. However, DKIM remains intact if the server forwards the email. DKIM is a bit more complicated: in the DNS, you place a public key, and the email server adds an encrypted signature to the email created with the corresponding private key. Our email tools can help you generate the DKIM DNS record and verify its functionality with a test email. You will also need to consult the documentation of your email server.

Implement DMARC

DMARC can help report emails that do not comply with the SPF or DKIM standards. If your SPF and DKIM are in order, you can set up DMARC to reject emails that do not validate with SPF or DKIM. This is the most optimal approach. However, Google also accepts a DMARC record where no action is taken (p-none).

Our email tools can help you compose and verify the DMARC DNS record.

Add one-click unsubscribe for newsletters

If you send recurring emails such as newsletters, a "List-Unsubscribe" header should be added so that a user can unsubscribe directly from Gmail. Google explains how this works here.

Other requirements

Other requirements have been in existence for a while now, but they continue to remain important:

  • Ensure that your email server uses a TLS connection.
  • If your email server regularly forwards emails, implement ARC headers.
  • Ensure that the sending IP addresses have correct forward and reverse DNS records (PTR records).
  • Ensure that you do not send spam.
  • Ensure that messages are formatted according to the Internet Message Format standard (RFC 5322).
START VALIDATING YOUR DOMAINS