Is there a mail option or setting to add an image so it will appear beside an email when it is delivered? Like how some email providers will show a designated picture of the sender next to the email.
Having a designated image chosen by the sender that appears next to the email subject would be a good security measure and reassurance so the recipient knows the email they’re about to open is legitimate.
If the image can’t be “forced” or made to appear next to the Subject line like a typical contact photo, perhaps the chosen image could appear with the Subject line by default.
It would be nice to have this feature for each alias, but starting with one image that can be used for an entire account and all the aliases would be a great start.
Thank you for your message Fred so I can better clarify my question and idea so it is easier to understand.
I was referring to selecting an image to be associated with my Runbox aliases, so when I send email that image will appear next to the Subject line in someone else’s inbox, like a contact photo.
The difference would be that the image would show next to the Subject line for every email I send, even if it is to an email address I have never sent email to before.
Having an image I preselected appear next to the Subject for every email I send would act as a way to reassure the person receiving the email that it is actually from me, especially if they know beforehand what the image is.
I’m just a regular user, not sending any super secret stuff. But with all of the fraud and other deceptions online these days it occurred to me that it would be great if an email sender could choose an image to appear next to all their emails as a form of authenticity.
This isn’t possible in email messages unless you include HTML in the subject line and that might actually cause messages to go to the recipients Spam folder.
There are better ways to authenticate yourself and email providers are starting to use these methods more. One is to use DKIM signing of messages. If you use a Runbox address we sign all email messages to verify they come from Runbox servers and from a valid account that has been authenticated with a username and password. If you use your own domain you can set up DKIM signing with us and we will sign those messages too.
Receiving email services should be taking these signatures in to account. Runbox does to some extent and we are improving this over time. As these features are uses more they will become more widely used and robust.
You can also include other kinds of signatures in your email (such as PGP) but it would require the recipient to be able to verify those.
Both of the above are better than an image in the subject line because anyone could fake the image and then send as if from yourself. Digital signatures like DKIM not only verify the message is from the authenticated sender but also verify that the message has not been changed in transit.
I don’t have my own domain to use DKIM with, but that’s great Runbox can work for those that do.
You brought up a good point I hadn’t even thought about, Runbox authenicating that email is sent from a valid account. I recently sent an email to a local company and discovered my email sent with a Runbox alias was automatically filtered to the Spam folder.
Fortunately the recipient found the email and was able to read it. I know this filtering of unusual and uncommon email providers is standard by the big name email companies. Like you mentioned, if the Runbox signatures can be improved that would help.
