Yahoo! Launches Mail and Messenger Applications for Android OS

Yahoo! Inc. has expanded Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger to support Android OS 2.0 or greater, providing a new operating system platform alternative to the more than 300 million current users of these applications.

The Android OS-enabled Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger incorporate the latest HTML5 features and boast a more visual interface that takes advantage of Google's mobile operating system -- all part of Yahoo!'s efforts to add HTML5 mobile Website capabilities across its product catalog.

The apps have been enhanced to provide faster accessing and information sharing information capabilities on Android phones, says Yahoo!

The Android versions of Mail and Messenger include many of the same features provided in previous editions, including the ability to:

• Push notification of new email messages
• Send emails to contacts from the Yahoo! Address Book as well as to contacts in the native phone address book
• Search email messages by sender, recipient, subject and keywords
• Upload photos as attachments directly from the phone's camera or the photo gallery
• View and download attachments
• Insert emoticons and rich text formatting into emails
• Manage and organize their Yahoo! Mail messages, folders, and spam

Other features include the ability to quickly message friends, check friends' status updates and availability and update their personal status and availability l and send instant messages to friends via SMS text messages.

The upgraded Yahoo! Mail also lets users view HTML messages; compose rich text messages; reply, search emails, and access folders while offline; and manage folders and create smart folders with messages from key contacts. Yahoo! News includes an all-new layout with animated visual effects and touch and gesture navigation.

The Yahoo! Search Widget for Android allows one-click access to Yahoo! Search. After the Widget is installed, a Yahoo! Search box is easily accessible on the home screen. Features include voice search for easier input, Search Assist for quick suggestions and recommendations, and auto-locate technology to deliver locally relevant results.

Availability
Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger are now available as free downloads in the on-device Android Market.

The online media company has also expanded its Yahoo! Search Widget to include the Android operating system. This is also free and currently available for download in the U.S. via the Android Market.