In the latest update to its mobile mail app, Yahoo has introduced several new features aimed at making navigation and information-sharing easier on iOS and Android mobile devices.
Unveiled Tuesday, the latest version of the Yahoo Mail app for iPhones and other Apple devices (shown above) includes a preview function for links, new support for stationery, and a quick-sharing button for content on mobile devices.
For Android, the update brings a new directory that lets users view all people they’ve communicated with via email, as well as an option to sync the Address Book with other contacts on their devices. Yahoo also announced that it is launching an open beta program for Android users.
Yahoo Mail has added a number of new features in recent months. Last October, for example, it debuted a tool called Yahoo Account Key that gives users the option of password-free access to their email app. And last month, it announced people could now use the mobile app to send files from Google Drive or Dropbox, as well as GIFs from Tumblr.
Zero Inbox Earns Congrats
Writing on Yahoo’s Tumblr blog, product management director Josh Jacobson said the new versions of its email app add features that users had said were their favorites on Yahoo Mail for desktop.
Jacobson wrote that the launch of a new open beta program for Yahoo Mail on Android will enable early adopters to try experimental features ahead of other users. It will also provide Yahoo with a new source of feedback to help make future updates “better, faster and more stable,” he wrote.
A number of updates to iOS and Android rolled out on Tuesday, Jacobson said. Other changes Android users will discover include new animations — “try deleting or starring a message!” Jacobson wrote — and a congratulatory message that appears if and when users hit zero messages in their inboxes.
Targeting Productivity and ‘Strategic Alternatives’
A growing number of people are using smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to access email and other productivity apps. It’s a well-known trend, also confirmed by a report released earlier this year by Flurry Analytics, a company acquired by Yahoo in July 2014. The trend is especially strong among teens and college students, the report said.
In its Q1 2016 financial results, Yahoo reported its latest updates to Mail were launched to “help users stay organized and get more things done quickly.”
Yahoo has been struggling of late to create a strong new identity for its business, and in February kicked off a process to “consider strategic alternatives for the company.” Among the options its strategic review committee is exploring are a wholesale selling-off of properties or something it calls a “reverse spin,” which would entail spinning off the core business as an independent entity.
The company in April reported a quarterly loss of $ 99.2 million, and CEO Marissa Mayer has been under increasing pressure from investors to reverse the business’ downward trends.
Image credit: Yahoo Mail.
