One of the annoying things about the Yahoo! Mail app for Android-powered devices was that it did not let you choose the sound it would play when you got a new email message. You were stuck with just one sound, the default notification. You could pick one of many ringtones, one of many notification sounds, and one of many SMS notification sounds to use on your Android, but you could not pick the notification sound for Yahoo! Mail. That could prove to be a bit annoying; it was a dark spot on an application with an otherwise good looking visage.

I used the past tense in the paragraph above because this is no longer the case. Earlier this month the development team behind Yahoo! Mail for Android updated the app to version 1.4.0. On top of several performance enhancements that make the app faster, this new version comes with the option to pick the notification sound. Or to put it in other words, you can now use more than the default notification sound the app plays when you get a new email message.

There is a downside though: you can choose one of several notification sounds for the Yahoo! Mail app – but only from the ones your Android-powered device already has. I have a custom Star Wars notification sound that I use on my Galaxy SII; unfortunately I cannot use it, because Yahoo! Mail for Android doesn’t let me choose any sound apart from the ones the app and my device have to offer by default.

Here are the steps you must take if you want to change the default notification that Yahoo! Mail for Android plays:

• Launch the Yahoo! Mail app and sign in if necessary.
• Access the Options menu
• Tap on the Account Settings option.
• Tap on the Notification Settings option.
• Tap Choose Sound.
• From the list of sounds presented, select the one you like and hit Done.

Yahoo! Mail is available for download for free on the Play Store here.