Yahoo Mail Just Got a Design Refresh and Here Are the 10 Things that Changed

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 28 Jun 2017

The last time that Yahoo Mail changed its design was back in October 2013, when it celebrated its "sweet sixteen." 2013’s design refresh introduced themes, grouped messages with the same subject line into Conversations, offered 1TB of storage space for free, and gave you the option to use disposable email addresses.

But let’s not focus too much on 2013’s design, because Yahoo Mail just go a design refresh this week. If features new themes, makes the inbox feel less cluttered, provides easier access to the Settings menu, and more. Take a look below to see all the new features that have been introduced with Yahoo Mail’s design refresh.

1. New color themes



The old themes have been replaced with new ones and the cool thing is that you can choose how much screen real-estate these themes take up. Go with the Light option if you want the theme to take up just the upper part of the screen. Go with the Medium option if you want the theme to take over the sides as well. And last but not least, go with the Dark option if you want the theme to cover the entire screen.


2. New stationery



Artist-designed stationary is readily available for all your outgoing emails. There’s something for every occasion.


3. Twitter’s open source emoji



Shiv Shankar, Senior Product Manager with Yahoo Mail, explained that you can "express yourself using our new emoji set from Twitter’s open source offering, and with new stationery to make your emails more stylish."


4. More spacing for a less cluttered feel



The new design makes Yahoo Mail feel less cluttered because there’s more spacing between items. The Medium spacing option is enabled by default. If you want even more spacing between items, go with the Large option instead. And if you want less spacing, enable the Small option.


5. All documents in one place



Yahoo Mail groups all your documents together in the new Documents View and lets you preview most types of documents without having to download them.


6. All your photos in one place



Photos View is pretty much the same as the aforementioned Documents View: a central location for all the photos that you’ve sent or received with Yahoo Mail.


7. Rich previews for photos and documents



If an email contains photos, you’ll see a special icon next to the subject line. Place your mouse cursor on that icon and Yahoo Mail will preview the photos.


8. Easier access to the Settings



Accessing the Settings menu is as easy as clicking the cog icon from the upper right hand corner. From the Settings menu you can change the theme, adjust the spacing, customize the message layout, and more.



If you don’t like Yahoo Mail’s new design, you can switch to the old one from the Settings menu.


9. Better search



Use Yahoo Mail’s built-in search feature to find emails, contacts, even attachments. And if you picked a specific option from the Message Layout or Viewing Email menu (Settings -> More Settings -> Viewing Email), the search results page will respect your option.

"Now you’ll be able to view the search results page the same way you’ve specified in your 'viewing email' settings. For example, if you use conversation mode, now the search results page will show results in conversation mode instead of in a flat message list. If you’ve selected your preview pane to display on the right, it won’t move when you’re in the search results page," explained Shiv Shankar.


10. Fast and responsive interface

"We use the latest web technologies to make your whole experience faster from the moment you login," explained Shiv Shankar. "Every part of the interface is faster and more reliable, particularly for slower connections. Yahoo Mail also behaves smarter in recognizing different screen sizes, no matter how small or how big your screen. The responsive design keeps the key elements of the interface in the right place."


How to enable (or disable) Yahoo Mail’s new design

Sign into your Yahoo Mail account and a prompt should show up, inviting you to try the new design. If not, then take a look in the lower left hand corner and you should see a blue prompt that says "Try the new Yahoo Mail.

If you enabled the new design and you don’t like it, you can switch back by going to the Settings menu and selecting "Switch to classic mail."


Remove all adds with the new Yahoo Mail Pro

The simple truth of the matter is that Yahoo Mail is free because it displays ads, and if you don’t want to see any then you have to pay to remove them. Ad Free Mail, the paid service that Yahoo Mail introduced a few years ago, has been replaced with the new and cheaper Yahoo Mail Pro.

While Ad Free Mail cost $49.99/per year, the new Yahoo Mail Pro is $34.99 per year. If you don’t want to pay for a full year, you can get a monthly subscription for just $3.49.

If you use Yahoo Mail exclusively on your iOS or Android mobile device, then you can remove all ads by getting a mobile-only subscription, priced at $0.99 per month or $9.99 per year.

The new Yahoo Mail Pro offers priority customer support across desktop and mobile for all subscriptions.


Design Refresh and Yahoo Mail Pro Availability

The new Yahoo Mail design is available globally for English-language users on desktop. Support for more languages will be added in the future.

The new Yahoo Mail Pro subscription service for desktop and mobile is available to all English-language users in the US. Support for additional languages and locations will be added in the future.

Learn more about Yahoo Mail’s new design here.
Learn more about Yahoo Mail Pro here.


TL;DR? Watch this!





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