Google and Yahoo Email Authentication Requirements

Google and Yahoo will soon be requiring that all email sent to recipients using their email services — anyone using Google Workspace, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail — passes standard email authentication. If your email does not pass authentication checks, your email will not reach its destination.

This could affect email you send from Help Scout to Google or Yahoo customers, depending on your Inbox address, outgoing email settings, and domain records.

This article will help you determine if you are affected, and explain what steps you need to take to make sure your email authenticates to meet these new requirements.

Determine If and How Your Inbox is Affected

Check the scenarios below for the one that matches your Help Scout Inbox (or Inboxes).

Your Inbox uses the Help Scout assigned @yourcompany.helpscoutapp.com address
You are not affected by this change, as email you send from Help Scout will be authenticated for the helpscoutapp.com domain.

Your Inbox sends using your email provider via SMTP
Sending email from Help Scout specifically should not be affected by these changes. If you are having issues with email deliverability, you might need to check with your email provider for more help.

Your Inbox uses a free email address, such as @gmail.com or @outlook.com and you send using Help Scout servers
You will no longer be able to send email from Help Scout servers to any Google or Yahoo email customers due to these changes.
You can change your Inbox to send email from your provider instead, if your provider offers SMTP service for your free address — check out Outgoing Email Settings: Send via Your Email Provider (Use Custom SMTP) for more help.

Your Inbox uses a custom email address from a domain you or your organization owns, e.g. support@yourdomain.com and you send using Help Scout servers
You may need to create DNS records to ensure your email from Help Scout servers will authenticate. Keep reading below for more help.
Alternately, you may wish to use SMTP to send rather than sending via Help Scout servers. Check out Outgoing Email Settings: Send via Your Email Provider (Use Custom SMTP) for more help in setting that up.

Inboxes With a Custom Email Address at Your Domain

You will need to make sure that you have set up the required CNAME records at your DNS provider so that when the recipient servers check for DKIM, they will be able to authenticate that.

If you have an IT team or a person or team that manages your website, you'll want to reach out to them for help getting these records created.

We have a guide with all of the details of what your team needs to do here: Use DKIM to Help With Email Deliverability

We would highly recommend your team consider setting up a DMARC record while working in the DNS records. DMARC is not something required for Help Scout use, however, Google and Yahoo may require DMARC from your domain if you send bulk email, like newsletters, marketing emails, or other a large number of emails overall.

You can read more about DMARC here, where you'll also find links to learn more: DMARC and Help Scout

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