Now, don’t get me wrong, we didn’t launch the Yahoo Account Key to move the stock price and I’m not suggesting it’s the reason the stock moved. What I am saying is that because we are maniacally focused on solving a very big problem for Yahoo users, we know that launching products like Account Key will have positive impact.
Impact is incredibly intoxicating and it’s important to know that what you’re doing will move the needle.
We spent a year building Account Key which required making the necessary tradeoffs and it was incredibly hard. Maintaining focus and being ruthless about execution was crucial to actually launching. We had some very dark days but the sun came out yesterday and all the suffering paid off.
The product isn’t perfect. There are bugs, there are many improvements to be made, but we know we’re doing something very useful for Yahoo users and that makes it all worth it.
By Jeffrey Bonforte, SVP of Communication Products
This month marks Yahoo Mail’s 18th birthday and we’re celebrating the occasion by giving you a brand new Yahoo Mail app that’s fast, intuitive and beautiful. The new app is fully redesigned. It’s more powerful, yet simple to use. And, of course, we’ve made a significant investment in the technology that powers the app, so it’s fast and responsive.
In addition to overhauling the app, we have two other major updates. First, the Yahoo Mail app (and our browser interface) can manage email accounts from Outlook.com, Hotmail and AOL Mail. Second, the new Yahoo Mail app is the first from Yahoo to feature our password-free sign-in experience called Yahoo Account Key, taking user convenience and security to the next level.
The new Yahoo Mail app is available in the Apple App Store to all global users now, and rolling out to Android users in Google Play starting today.
Let’s dive into the details:
The New Yahoo Mail App
Fast
Speed is very important to our users, so we’ve dedicated a lot of time enhancing the performance of the entire app. From the moment you open Yahoo Mail, the app is snappy, actions are responsive and transitions are smooth and quick.
Beautiful
Right from the start, you will notice the new app is clean, intuitive and beautiful. Here are some examples of the key design elements:
Photos: Yahoo Mail is the only major mail service that can connect to
Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, so you’ll see great photos from senders
more often.
Avatars: No ugly avatars. In most apps, if they can’t get a photo, they
will insert a gray contact icon or maybe a colorful letter. But the
contrast of photos and default avatars looked ugly to us, so we
partnered with Flickr to show the sender’s initials from a photo curated
from our library of gorgeous Flickr images.
Contact cards: No email app knows the people in your inbox better than
the new Yahoo Mail app. Tap anyone in an email to see any contact
information they’ve shared with you - name, company, title, email
history, even recent tweets. Yahoo Mail maintains it all for you,
automatically, even when someone’s not in your address book.
Swipe to triage: Swiping right on a message marks it read or unread. Swiping left deletes the message.
Long press to select more than one message: Want to move or delete a lot
of messages at once? Simply tap and hold on a message and you are in
multi-select mode. Don’t worry if you make a mistake, you can easily
undo the recent action.
Get your news in Yahoo Mail: Need a break from your inbox? Check the top
stories on Yahoo with a tap on the Yahoo news icon in the top right
corner.
Smart
Forget scrolling and foldering, Yahoo Mail’s new search lets you find a message, photo or attachment with just a few taps.
Most people search for things by the sender (either person or company),
so we’ve made that the fastest and easiest way to search. Give us a
couple of letters of a person’s name, and we’ll suggest the most likely
contact. Your results automatically organize into messages, photos and
attachments you’ve exchanged. Or maybe it’s something you sent, just
toggle the results to show messages you’ve sent to that person.
Of course, sometimes you want to search by keyword, and the app will make smart suggestions; results are more relevant and we search across messages, photos and attachments.
Compose Better Email
We’ve made it even easier to create and send beautiful, effective emails.
Attach photos or videos from your phone easily by clicking on the “+”
icon on your new message. Photos and videos appear right in your email,
scaled automatically. Prefer to attach rather than show the photos in
the message, just tap the “…” on the photo to convert it to a regular
attachment.
A lot of people send emails to themselves with reminders and notes
throughout the day (we call these “me” mails). To quickly send yourself
an email, just long-press the compose button.
Beyond Your Yahoo Mail Account
Most people have more than one email account. Now you can enjoy all the power of the new Yahoo Mail app (and our desktop interface) with your other mailboxes including Outlook.com, Hotmail, AOL Mail and, of course, Yahoo.
For each connected mailbox, you now have access to Yahoo Mail’s features – powerful search, smart contacts and auto-suggest, rich compose – across all your emails. The ability to manage multiple mailboxes is rolling out globally today in the Yahoo Mail app. The desktop experience is available for U.S. English users today and will be coming soon to users outside of the U.S. You can find more details on this announcement here.
Yahoo Account Key
No matter where you are on the internet, passwords are a pain. We’re happy to announce a big step forward to a password-free future with Yahoo Account Key. Account Key uses push notifications to provide a fast and secure way for you to access your Yahoo accounts from your smartphone. It frees you from memorizing complicated passwords, making signing-in to your Yahoo Mail app easy as tapping a button. You can learn more about the Yahoo Account Key here. Get started today!
We’re delighted to bring you the newest version of Yahoo Mail, and hope you find that it delivers a powerful email experience in a simple, intuitive design that’s faster than ever before. We’d love to hear what you think, so please send us your feedback!
Earlier this year, we launched on-demand passwords so you can sign into your Yahoo account using an SMS code, instead of memorizing a complicated password. It was the first step toward a password-free future.
Today, we’re excited to take user convenience a step further by introducing Yahoo Account Key, which uses push notifications to provide a quick and simple way for you to access a Yahoo account using your mobile device.
Passwords are usually simple to hack and easy to forget. Account Key streamlines the sign-in process with a secure, elegant and easy-to-use interface that makes access as easy as tapping a button. It’s also more secure than a traditional password because once you activate Account Key – even if someone gets access to your account info – they can’t sign in.
Account Key is now available globally for the new Yahoo Mail app and will be rolling out to other Yahoo apps this year. We’re thrilled about this next step towards a password-free future!
Welcome to my corner of the interweb. I like to post here about stuff I'm interested in like music, gadgets, hacks and the occasional random thought. You can read what the internets have to say about me here. I used to race bikes with the US Postal Service Professional Cycling team before hanging up my wheels to join the product team at Google. I don't race much anymore but I work with Team Specialized and mentor the junior team. Currently I spend time working at Yahoo when I'm not tinkering with other projects, restoring my 1966 Mustang or chasing my kids around. I'm passionate about gadgets, bikes, mobile, social, and fighting cancer.
