Yahoo Mail App Gets Design Update Focussing on One-Handed Usage, Includes Various Customisations

Yahoo Mail app has been updated with an all-new interface that is specifically designed for one-handed usage. The latest update also brings various Views to help users easily find their important email subscriptions and track travel updates with a single tap. Additionally, Yahoo is offering various customisations to the Yahoo Mail app to take on the likes of Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Outlook. The app also includes dedicated dark mode access to let users read their emails in high contrast.

"Basically, two trends we've noticed over the past few years," said Joshua Jacobson, Senior Director of Product Management for Yahoo Mail, in a conversation with Gadgets 360. "One is the change from people-to-people emails to business-to-people emails. The second big trend is most phones are just getting bigger and bigger, and their screens are actually getting larger. So in terms of the navigation, a lot of things we used to have to access different features, they have over the top."

One of the key priorities for the Yahoo Mail team was to keep in mind the latest Android smartphones and iOS 13-based iPhone models while designing the new update. Jacobson stated that the team also considered the feedback it received from users through various channels and did a lot of user research.

"We're trying to understand what is it that we can do for consumers to help them get the most out of email," the executive told Gadgets 360.

The major change that you'd notice in the updated Yahoo Mail app is the new navigation design that brings a customisable bottom navigation bar instead of the earlier side panel that was available through a hamburger menu button -- similar to what's available on Gmail and Outlook apps.

You can customise the bottom navigation as per your requirement and replace the bottom tabs to meet your requirements. This means if you don't want the Starred tab at the bottom, you can replace it with the People tab or the Unread tab.

"The updated navigation design brings the most content forefront -- at the bottom of the screen," noted Shiv Shankar, Director of Product Management for Yahoo Mail. "So it's very easy for a single hand to access your inbox. Just tap on the Inbox, you can navigate to all your folders, just a single hand."

There are also new themes with as many as 27 different variations. You can also select the Dark Mode that is specifically designed by keeping Android 10 and iOS 13 in view. For iPhone users, there is also an Automatic option that enables the app to sync the theme with the iPhone's Appearance settings.

Yahoo Mail app has an Automatic option to sync with your iPhone's Appearance settings

The updated Yahoo Mail app also includes a specific View to provide access to all your email attachments, including various important files, travel documents, event tickets, and photos. Similarly, there is a Subscriptions hub from where you can browse all the emails that you've subscribed to. You can also unsubscribe to any of the existing newsletters with a single tap directly through the Subscriptions hub.

Yahoo Mail engineers tested the feature to unsubscribe from email subscriptions last year. Jacobson said that the initial rollout was aimed to offer an easy unsubscribe option on a per-message basis, but the new change brings all the email subscriptions under one roof to make things even easier for users.

Yahoo Mail app offers a Subscriptions hub for email subscriptions and newsletters

"What we realised as we explored the space from a technology standpoint, is it's anything but simple to combine all the subscriptions in one place," said Jacobson.

Instead of using any particular email standards, the Yahoo Mail app uses a machine learning system to sort emails as they come in to your inbox. The team is, however, touted to take care of user privacy and security while using the advancements.

"We, of course, take privacy and security very, very seriously," underlined Jacobson. "So you know, we use all industry standards, and on both fronts, we have a privacy dashboard that users can go and see all the information that Verizon Media has available, and they can control that information."

Since not many users are on Yahoo's own email service nowadays, the Yahoo Mail app provides an option to log in using email accounts like Gmail and Outlook. The team last year also brought the Yahoo Mail Go app for entry-level smartphones.

That being said, you can experience the new features of the updated Yahoo Mail app by downloading the updated version on your Android or iOS device.

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