What is Google's requirement for the unsubscribe button.

[porterporter]

When sending emails, only emails that use mailto: as an unsubscribe method show the big unsubscribe button. I don't want to use mailto: because that means complicated inbox stuff. What makes the unsubscribe button appear using the List-Unsubscribe-Post=One-Click and List-Unsubscribe=listmonk-url/unsubscribe show up

Email from random list I am subscribed to (uses mailto:)

Email from me (uses listmonk)

[MaximilianKohler]

In my experience, I saw it randomly show up. But according to https://www.paved.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-gmail-unsubscribe-button/ it should be the list-unsubscribe header which you can enable in listmonk's settings.

However, I just tried that and it didn't work for me either. There was a problem with it not showing with test messages #360, but I did a normal campaign as well and it didn't show.

I had list-unsubscribe headers disabled. I sent two test messages and the unsubscribe didn't show (expected), then I enabled the option and sent another test and it still didn't show. Then I sent a normal campaign and it still didn't show.

I do see the two lines in the raw message that was delivered (and not in the previous two):

List-Unsubscribe: <https://website.com/subscription/22335xxx5328ffc7d8/edc4d2xxxx428f3>
To: xxx@gmail.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Listmonk-Campaign: 2233xxx328ffc7d8
X-Listmonk-Subscriber: edc4d2xxxf71428f3
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click

I looked at another email I received from the Effective Altruism Forum and it has the "unsubscribe" at the top of gmail yet it doesn't have the list-unsubscribe headers. Same for an email from nextdoor.com. So I'm not sure what use the list-unsubscribe header has. I'm not seeing any results saying the feature has been deprecated, but per what I'm observing in gmail it seems to be useless. Yet even Google is recommending it and saying it's required for sending more than 5k emails per day: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126.

See also Which email clients support list-unsubscribe? - only gmail supports the URL method that listmonk uses.

EDIT: According to this https://9to5google.com/2014/08/06/gmail-adds-easy-to-find-unsubscribe-button-next-to-senders-address/ it only shows up for emails in Gmail’s Promotions, Social, and Forums inboxes.

This Dec 2023 article https://9to5google.com/2023/12/15/gmail-unsubscribe-button/ (another https://www.androidheadlines.com/2023/12/gmail-desktop-unsubscribe-button-more-prominent.html) says they're making recent changes to the way it looks.

EDIT: I was just looking at this more, and it seems that it can also be hidden if the name + email is too long:

In the screenshot above the blank space circled in red is actually the unsubscribe button.

I found other people experiencing this as well: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77619472/even-after-implementing-the-list-unsubscribe-header-the-unsubscribe-from-maili/77767610

EDIT: I moved all future emails from myself to the "promotions" inbox. I sent another test email without list-unsubscribe enabled and "Unsubscribe" did not show up. I enabled list-unsubscribe and sent another test and list-unsubscribe is in the header of the raw message but still doesn't show up at the top of the email.

Google's own emails from googlealerts-noreply@google.com do not have the List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click header. They only have:

ARC-Message-Signature: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=google.com; s=arc-xxx;
        h=to:from:subject:message-id:list-unsubscribe:list-id:date

DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
        h=to:from:subject:message-id:list-unsubscribe:list-id:date

X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
        h=to:from:subject:message-id:list-unsubscribe:list-id:date

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:ur@unsubscribe.alerts.google.com?subject=AB2XxxxxxxxxBlTs>

I see that the NYT is also using mailto::

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsubscribe@nyt.mail.e.sparkpost.com?subject=unsubscribe:xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx~|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx~>

There was a previous issue that requested this feature in listmonk and it was declined #1161.

That issue also has this link which confirms (back in 2009) that Google and Outlook prefer the mailto: method, and only show the button for trusted senders.

EDIT: It looks like you can use both. Nextdoor is using this:

List-Unsubscribe: <https://links.itr.email.nextdoor.com/e/eh?_t=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&_m=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&_e=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx%3D%3D>,<mailto:unsubscribe+xxxxxxx+xxxxx@unsubscribe.iterable.com>

Facebook uses:

List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.facebook.com/o.php?k=xxxx&u=xxxx&mid=xxxxx&ee=xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxxx>

without List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click.

[knadh]

I just sent a test e-mail from a test listmonk instance and GMail renders the "Unsubscribe" link.

[MaximilianKohler]

I just sent a test e-mail from a test listmonk instance and GMail renders the "Unsubscribe" link.

That's lacking a lot of relevant context/info from my comment. IE: were you using listmonk's list-unsubscribe header option? Did the email land in Gmail’s Promotions, Social, or Forums inboxes? What is the reputation of the sender? Etc...

[knadh]

• Yes, list unsub header is on. Without that, G-mail wouldn't know how to unsub.
• E-mail landed in the inbox.
• I used my personal G-mail SMTP (app password) and sent the test campaign to another G-mail account.

[MaximilianKohler]

Without that, G-mail wouldn't know how to unsub

Not true, see my first comment.

The other two points seem to confirm the randomness of it...

[porterporter]

interesting, i guess i'll just let it be for now and hope it shows up but that's super weird on google's end

[michaelPotter]

Just chiming in for other folks who might come across this ... It seems google requires a certain level of sender reputation to show the button.

https://support.google.com/mail/thread/49653586?hl=en&msgid=49801705

Anecdotally, we couldn't get the button to render with our "testing" domain that rarely gets used, but it seems to show up consistently with our main domain.