In late September 2019, Verizon Media-owned Yahoo, in an effort to enhance the user experience, introduced new features to its flagship email service Yahoo Mail.
The company says the new changes were based on user feedback. It is said to have taken a year of planning, prototyping, testing for Yahoo to bring the refreshed email app for mobiles. Taking note of the increasing size of the phone's screen, it has shifted the menu tab down, for easy one-hand operation.
There are separate labels with discernible icons such as plane (to check flight tickets), a tag (for lucrative deals on products), receipts, stars (important emails) and subscription hubs, so that the users to find notifications from the service companies like Netflix, Apple iTunes, Amazon, Prime Video, HotStar and others, all under one roof. You can also unsubscribe to the service in one step.
The new spruced up Yahoo Mail now offers visually appealing themes option to help users personalise the app interface with 14 eye-catching colours with light and dark shades. If you happen to have the latest iOS 13 or Android 10 software, Yahoo Mail will blend seamlessly with the system-wide dark mode.
There is also an attachment option, where users can find PDFs and images easier than ever before. Another useful option is Groceries, which is said to help people save money on the essentials with the new Grocery View. With Browse & save offers from local stores, users can connect their store loyalty card to automatically apply to the saved coupons at checkout.
In India, the subscription hubs and themes customisation have been a big hit among millions of local Yahoo Mail users, Shiv Shankar S, Director of Product Management, Yahoo Mail, said to DH.
With India in focus, Yahoo Mail is being offered in seven Indic languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi, Shankar added.
As far as security is concerned, Shankar said there are several security measures to curb phishing attempts in Yahoo Mail. If the users get emails from unknown people who are not in the contact list, he/she will be notified that the mail is from a person not in the contact list and should be careful going forward.
Also, when hackers do breach a user's account they tend to forward some email chat to other email IDs. To keep a check on it, the Yahoo Mail will alert the user, if he/she really did forward the mail.
Another huge advantage of shifting to Yahoo Mail is that it offers, 1TB (1024GB), which is more than enough to store 250 to 300 HD (720p) movies. It can be noted that Google offers a meager 15GB for Gmail users and after the subscribers have to pay monthly or yearly fees to extend the storage capacity.
Other email service subscribers can integrate with Yahoo Mail easily and access old emails and also continue to use the new Yahoo Mail.
On asked on whether Yahoo Mail will be offered to the corporate sector, Shankar said they are now more focused on individual consumer experience and will continue to improve upon it.
As of now, Yahoo Mail has 4.6-star ratings on both Android & iOS platforms and has more than 7 million reviews, that's pretty impressive.
And for now, the company has no immediate plans to bring a separate email service for business enterprises.
Currently, Yahoo Mail has 276 million monthly active users and among them, around 75 million people use the mobile app. The company also noted that more than 60-percent of users are outside the US region.
With well-thought features added to the Yahoo Mail, it is certain to draw more consumers.
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