New Yahoo Mail: Multiple Apps for Web, iPhone, Android and Windows 8
New Yahoo Mail promises to save users time.
Dec. 11, 2012 — -- First it was Microsoft with Outlook. Then Aol came out with Alto. Now Yahoo is giving its email service a fresh face with totally redesigned email apps.
"You've told us loud and clear that you want fewer distractions when it comes to email. You want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with your day. And we've listened," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced on Yahoo's blog today.
Yahoo has certainly focused on uncluttering its webmail service and its accompanying apps, but it's also focused on some other aspects. The main ideas? Simplicity, speed and support for multiple platforms, Vivek Sharma, general manager of Yahoo Mail & Messenger told ABC News.
With all the new offerings, Yahoo has focused on simplicity and the core email functions, including reading, composing and replying. In the webmail version, only the core functions will appear when you need them. For instance, if you haven't selected a message, the trash button won't appear.
Key to the redesign are also speed enhancements. "Speed is a big deal -- we asked ourselves how do we make it faster all around," Sharma said. According to Sharma, the webmail service has been sped up in a few places. It is 40 percent faster for a user to go from the logon screen to the inbox, and it is 10 to 15 percent faster when it comes to composing messages.
"We are saving users 36 million minutes a day," he said. Currently Yahoo says it has 110 million daily users.
But just tidying and speeding up Yahoo's webmail wasn't enough. "Users told us they wanted it on all platforms that they use," Sharma said. The new Yahoo Mail rolls out today with a brand new iPhone app, an updated Android app and a brand new Windows 8 app. The iPhone and Android apps will bring some features from the Web version to phones, including folders and highlighting of important messages.
The Android app promises significant battery life improvements and adds multiple account support. Yahoo is also touting speed with the apps; Sharma claims the apps are as fast as the native apps on the phones.
It's a lot of improvement, but Sharma says there's more to come. When asked about an iPad app and other plans he said, "This is not the end, this is just the beginning."