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Yahoo Mail for iOS review: New themes let you read e-mail in style

The long time player in the e-mail category gives its stand-alone app some love, with new conversation views to consolidate e-mails and new themes to make reading mail more fun.

Jason Parker Senior Editor / Reviews - Software
Jason Parker has been at CNET for nearly 15 years. He is the senior editor in charge of iOS software and has become an expert reviewer of the software that runs on each new Apple device. He now spends most of his time covering Apple iOS releases and third-party apps.
Jason Parker
3 min read

Yahoo Mail for iOS received a face-lift for iOS 7 in the latest version, and with new themes and conversation views, it's a must have for anyone whose primary e-mail account is with Yahoo.

8.4

Yahoo Mail for iOS

The Good

<b>Yahoo Mail</b> has all the tools you could want for managing your e-mail, and new themes and conversation view features make it more fun and convenient.

The Bad

You can't use your own photos for themes.

The Bottom Line

The latest version of Yahoo Mail gives you a great way to manage your e-mail with all the features you've come to rely on, while adding cool customization to give it some style.

Improved look and layout
Following the new simplified design schemes of the main Yahoo app and Yahoo Weather, Yahoo Mail now has a new look to fit with iOS 7. But in Yahoo Mail, you have the ability to change the theme by selecting a premade background. Most of the themes are photos and patterns that show up in the background, and your inbox takes on the color of your photo. It's a lot like the effect of changing your background in iOS 7, where the colors of your background show through in the passcode screen.

If you find the colors to be too garish, you also have the option to pick from a selection of solid colors for just the interface elements while keeping the background a more standard white.

The new look for the Yahoo Mail app (pictures)

See all photos

Managing your inbox
Obviously, looks aren't the most important part of an e-mail client, but Yahoo has offered e-mail for many years and it has all the tools you would expect for managing your inbox, along with some new ones.

You can search through messages across all folders; easily attach photos to an e-mail by hitting a camera icon; preview photos without leaving your inbox; organize your mail into folders; and the app auto-completes addresses as you type. Also, as you swipe to browse your inbox, a horizontal swipe on a message brings up several quick actions such as delete, star (for important mail), and more.

To quickly navigate through folders, starred e-mails, drafts, and other categorized mail, you can tap a button in the upper left to reveal a slide out menu. Here you will also find access to other Yahoo apps (if you don't already have the app you'll be prompted to download), and you can manage your Yahoo accounts, switch themes, and access the settings menu. None of these features are particularly new to e-mail clients, but it's important to know that Yahoo Mail has all the bases covered.

A new feature for your Yahoo Mail inbox that is by now fairly common in other e-mail clients is the ability to view conversations. Now, related messages are grouped together in a single conversation view so you can follow a thread back to the beginning and see how each person responded without switching views.

One small nitpick
I only have one small complaint about the new backgrounds and it's that I can't use my own photos. The photos provided look great, but it would be even better if I could truly personalize my theme with a snapshot of my own.

Conclusion
Yahoo Mail has all the standard features you need for managing your inbox with handy tools that are only a swipe or tap away. The new themes are a nice touch to bring the app up to date with iOS 7 and make the app better looking than just about any e-mail app I have used. You could easily still use the Mail app on your iPhone to access Yahoo e-mail, but this dedicated app is quite a bit more visually exciting, so if you're main e-mail account is at Yahoo, this free app is the better option.

8.4

Yahoo Mail for iOS

Score Breakdown

Setup 9Features 8Interface 9Performance 9