Soon, Apple will allow businesses to customize how they appear in emails and phone calls on the iPhone. Apple announced on Wednesday how companies using its Business Connect tool can add their branding and logo so they will appear in iPhone apps used for email, phone calls and payments.
Each registered business can confirm that their information is accurate and add additional details such as photos or special offers. Collecting verified and up-to-date business information could be useful for Apple if it ever launches its own search engine or internal features for Apple Intelligence instead of sending users to external sources like Google, Yelp, or Meta.
Branded Mail is a feature that businesses can sign up for today before it begins rolling out to users later this year, which could make emails easier to identify in a sea of unread messages. In recent years, Gmail has also added authenticated brand logos and verification marks to show if an email comes from a verified source.
Additionally, if businesses opt for Business Caller ID, Apple will display their name, logo, and department on an iPhone's incoming call screen. This feature should be useful when you are trying to determine if the random number calling you is spam or if it is a legitimate business. It will begin to be implemented next year.
A smaller update coming to Apple's Tap to Pay service will allow businesses to display their logo when accepting payments instead of simply displaying a category icon.
