The old version of Yahoo Mail was beginning to lag behind its rivals, relying on a decidedly “Web 1.0” interface that was text-dominant and visually cramped. Yahoo has side-stepped the flat design age and jumped straight to the emerging trend towards gradient colours with the new app. It’s bright, modern and more aligned with other contemporary web apps.
It’s not just the app’s surface that has been reengineered. TechCrunch reports that Yahoo has actually rebuilt the entire service behind the scenes so it’s now quicker to load and more responsive. Yahoo has managed to shave 50 percent off the app’s asset footprint so it downloads more quickly and saves your data. This is especially important in less-developed regions of the world, the same areas which are becoming the next frontier for tech companies.
The app relies on open-source standards-based web technologies. Yahoo has thrown away much of its former infrastructure, settling on modern widely-used frameworks to give the revamped Mail a stable foundation. The architecture change and complete rewrite could also help Yahoo to move on from the two massive security breaches on the service that were reported last year.
Yahoo Mail comes with a fairly standard feature set for a modern email service. There’s built-in cloud storage, calendar and contacts capabilities, a robust search mode and a strong emphasis on folder usage. While the app lacks the add-on capabilities of rivals like Gmail and Outlook.com, it does support theming so you can customise your colour scheme.
Yahoo has also announced a $3.49 per month “Yahoo Mail Pro” subscription service. Presumably built to take on Microsoft’s Outlook.com Premium, the pro version of Mail strips out the ads and offers priority customer support. It doesn’t offer the customised domain name that’s a main selling point of Outlook Premium.
The relaunch of Yahoo Mail comes at a critical time for the company. With its takeover by Verizon completed this month, the former Internet giant is beginning to adapt to life as a subsidiary. Verizon already appears to be implementing changes, shuttering Yahoo’s popular “News Digest” app and now rolling out a much-needed update to one of its primary services.
Yahoo Mail is reported to have around 225 million monthly active users. While it’s nowhere near the 1 billion claimed by Gmail, Yahoo has managed to retain a significant loyal audience despite the impact of the security breaches. The reinvented app will give the service a greater chance of regaining its reputation going forward, making it a better competitor to the might of Gmail.
