I’ve been looking at the various mobile web based email providers. Previous posts covered Gmail Mobile and Microsoft’s new Live Mail Mobile. Today it’s Yahoo’s turn.
Yahoo has had mobile email since 2000. The current version has been around for at least a couple of years but it’s a good design and is aging well. There are both WAP2 and WAP1 versions of Yahoo Mail. The interfaces of the two versions are almost identical. The screenshots show the WAP2 version. The only difference I’ve found between the two, is that you can add the sender of an email to your address book with a single click on WAP2 but not on WAP1.
The Yahoo mobile mail interface is simple and intuitive. The first time you connect to mobile mail you will have to login. Yahoo saves a cookie on your device so future logins will be automatic . You can also log out if you’re concerned about security should you phone fall into the wrong hands.
After you log in, the initial screen lists your mail folders showing the number of unread messages in each. Numeric access keys (which are used throughout Yahoo mail) make selecting a folder a single click operation. In the list of messages only the message title is shown. This a trade off, by not showing the sender’s name more of the title can be shown. It would be nice if you could choose between displaying sender, title or both in the list but that option is not available.
Once you open a message, the sender’s name, title, time and date is displayed above the message body. WAP2 users can click the sender’s name to add the sender to their address book. This is handy but there is no obvious way to get back to the message from the address book other than the browser’s “Back” key. The “Options” link lets you reply, forward, delete, move the item to a folder or view headers. The “View Headers” option is unusual in a mobile mail app and shows the reply-to field, other recipients and the full sender address.
At the bottom of every screen in the Mail application is a menu (last image) which allows you to compose a new message, create folders and check other POP mail accounts (which must be set up in advance on the desktop). Composing a message is straight forward – pick recipients from the address book, key a title and body and hit “Send”.
While there’s nothing flashy about the Yahoo Mail mobile UI, it is efficient. The underlying Yahoo Mail feature set is one the best of all the web-based mobile mail services. Unique to Yahoo is Free Intellisync software to keep your Yahoo address book in sync with Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Organizer, ACT! and Palm and Microsoft PDA’s. The software can also sync most of these applications with your Yahoo Calendar and NotePad. You can make phone calls or emails directly from the address book on your phone which makes the synchronized Yahoo address book particularly useful if your phone can’t synchronize with the desktop or if you have hard time keeping your contacts up to date across multiple phones.
You can also set up Yahoo Mail to pull mail into your Yahoo inbox from external POP servers. SSL connections to POP servers aren’t supported so this won’t work with Gmail.
I really like Yahoo’s mobile alerts. An alert is a SMS sent to your phone when new email arrives. You can set filters to only send SMS’s for emails meeting certain criteria – such as a specific word in one or more of the fields; sender, to, subject or body. Hotmail and Live Mail Mobile also have mobile alerts that work similarly. Gmail doesn’t but you can get the equivalent functionality by setting up your mail to be forwarded (unconditionally or based on a filter) to your phones email-SMS gateway address AND also selecting the option to keep a copy of the mail in your inbox. I find that mobile email alerts give me an almost Blackberry like email experience on even the most basic phones. The SMS is my “You have new mail!” indicator – telling me to go into mail on my phone’s browser and read the new message. It’s really pretty cool. I do have free incoming SMS, if you have pay for SMS and get much mail you will want to use filters so you only get alerted for the really important emails.
Yahoo, Live Mail and Gmail are all good mobile email services. I prefer Yahoo but none of them are bad choices. Yahoo stands out for it’s desktop address book synchronization and the access to email on POP servers, Gmail for it’s huge email storage limit and the ability to view many attachments on the mobile and Live Mail has a fresh and powerful new UI. If you are already using the desktop version one of these services, the best mobile mail choice for you is probably the one you already use on the desktop.
Features: Usability:
wml/xhtml/html
Hey im the same guy as above.Heres the url i get “http://us.m.yahoo/p/login?.done=http%3A%2F%2Fus.m.yahoo.com%2Fp%2Fmessenger%3Fc%3D4XfThQsfGCq%26amp%3Btsrc%3Dyahoo%26amp%3Br%3D1935885009&tsrc=yahoo”
Amanda,
i am having the same problem as Amanda.I just recently(yesterday)purchased the motorola hint from metro pcs.When i first recieved it the first thing i did was to log in into yahoo to use the messenger and it worked perfectly fine,untill later on when i tryed to log in again ,i couldnt.I type in my yahoo id and password and then all i get is “HTTP Error:502 Bad Gateway”.Anybody who had a simillar problem,how did u fix it or did it get fixed by itself?
Jennifer, If you are having problems with Yahoo mail on your phone try using: http://us.m.yahoo.com/p/mail
Hi have been trying to check my mails but it has not been opening
hey, i try to access my yahoo account via my samsung WAP cell phone. did the sms set up, copy/pasted url and got to log, i, when typing log-in & PW ( small letters) i get always same error: the ID or PW are incorrect, pls try again.
i did several times, not a chance. tnx ffor help, lela
Devone,
I can’t reset your Yahoo password, only Yahoo can.
Visit this page to reset it:
https://edit.yahoo.com/forgotroot
Can u help me sign in to my account on my mobile. My passwords not workin can u reset it or send it to me please. Thank you so much
Can you teach me how to link my yahoo messenger to my mobile.
I have a motorola i335 with Boost mobile and the IM software won’t let me connect, keeps telling me there is a network error. I used the phone to im fine for several days and now nothing will allow me to log on using my phone. The account is active as I can log on with my ‘puter. People can still send im’s to me but I get them as text messages, and I can’t send a new message, only replies. I would much rather use the java app for several reasons, but am getting frustrated because IMing is the only reason that I ponied up an extra 30 bucks for the phone I chose.
I’ve a problem to login to my yahoo mail through my phone sumsung u700. Please help me.
I can see ever1 here hav got same problem,dat is,we cant able 2 login en read our email mgs,in short wat do we do?
I want open my e-mail above
@Michelle – Bad Gateway indicates a problem will your phone’s data connection. It happens if you are in an area of weak or no reception. If you get where you have a strong signal there is a network problem of some sort. Call your mobile operator.
I have a problem on every websites I have opened before, it says, error 502, bad gateway
I LOVE YAHOO GO
@Leyah,
I’v never heard of a yahoomail browser. Use your phone’s built in browser to go to yahoo.mobi and choose mail.
Hi,i wnt yahoomail browser 4 my mobile nokia 6500
@Victor,
What do you mean by configuration of mail? Are you trying to setup a mail client or just use the mobile web version of Yahoo Mail?
For the mobile web, just point your mobile browser at yahoo.mobi, choose mail and log in. There’s nothing you need to configure
I’m using nokia 2626 and need somebody to send the configuration of email to me.pls i have been having difficulty in accessing it on my phone.just the phone setting
Helow!Can you asist me to open my email because after writing my Yahoo Id and password instead of opening it display for second the page of writing yahoo Id and password.Am using sony Ericsson k800i.
I hv the same problem with most of people here. I try to open yahoo wap but 502 bad gate away n forbidden bla..bla..bla.. occoured. Its so frustating me because i couldn’t acces my email anytime evrytime with my nokia6680.
I try to open wap yahoo mail second ago..There was a blank page! Sigh.. I hate this, i consider to change in to gmail anyway!!
HAI i want yahoomail browser for my mobile fly b700 duo
Hi, am using a nokia 6230 nd hv probs wth loggin in. Page cums login id and pasword bt cn nt open. Its irritating!
@Dan,
I feel your pain Y!Mail has been doing similar things to me. I hate to kick them when they are down but Yahoo’s services have become increasingly unreliable especially on mobile.
The simplest solution is probably to forward all your Yahoo mail to gMail
Hi, i am in dare need of help. I have been accessing my yahoo account succesfully with my NOKIA 2626 mobile phone until of rescent. It just log me in and and ask me to sign me in and ask me to sign out emmediate without directing me to my inbox or gives me an internal error. Error 500 message
Hi I am using sony ericsson w810i.i have failed to use builtin Email facility because i can notconfigure it properly.Please help to configure this option for using yahoo account directly by this option.Regards
I get ‘Bad Gateway’ everytime i sign in my yahoo mail. What the problem?
Pls help me with yahoo mobile im clients like meebo,ebuddy. I have problems with yahoo directly.
Amanda,
I’ve myself have never gotten the 502 Bad Gateway error with Yahoo. I just successfully loged into Yahoo Mobile Mail at http://us.wap.yahoo.com/p/mail on both a Boost Mobile Motorola i855 and an ATT Nokia N95. Try that URL and if the problem persists contact MetroPCS support. 502 Bad Gateway is a network error between servers on the Internet, not a problem with your phone. Something at Metro PCS is probably mis-configured. Good luck!
Eric,
I am having this problem now. I am with metropcs and have successfully used yahoo mobile for checking my e-mail many times…. until about two weeks ago. At that point I started to get the 502 bad gateway error after entering username/password. I am curious how/if you were able to resolve your problem.
Amanda
i have visit all site even yahoomail.com . how can i open the yahoo…………..
When i open the yahoo site
first open the site….ys
Second..putting the mail id password at the site
Third…i have successfully login and watching the site
but not open the inbox
I think yahoo searching machine is best of all WAP site.I need to repair my Sony MP3 software.It’s program and software problem.Help me.
Eric,
By definition 502 errors occur at some intermediate server or gateway between your browser and the target site,.. In a mobile network they are usually caused by a problem with your mobile provider’s WAP gateway. Have you called them? That would be the first thing I’d try.
Dennis
Dennis,
I get the 502 error after entering my username/passwd on the yahoo mail login…any suggestions there? This is the only page I have problems with.
ImanRaza,
If you get the 502 all all sites there is something wrong with your provider’s configuration. If it only happens with Yahoo try a different url. Sometimes puting a ‘/’ at the end helps. Here are a few different Yahoo mobile url’s, maybe one will work. Try both with and without the trailing /.
m.yahoo.com/
us.m.yahoo.com/
in.m.yahoo.com/
sg.m.yahoo.com/
Dennis
I am also getting bad gateway 502 error when login in yahoo through my samsung c160 wap browser. Can you plz help what is the problem is.
Thanks
Hi,
I have a doubt about this review.
When using the option of SMS alerts with yahoo, how can I design the filters to only get alerted for specific emails??
I do not see any option in m.yahoo.com
Thanks
Hi, this is sumon from bangladesh. I am using siemens CX75, but can not use the instant message service. I have tried to go to new account but think the problem is the url. Anybody help me by giving the yahoo messengar url?
Hi my name is Yonas. I try my best 2 sign in on my D820 Samsung mobile but it always says bad getaway 502. Can u help me?
Hi using a Sony Ericsson P910i running Opera 6.31 browser .
Yahoo webmail USED to work fine but the page has recently changed and reliability of log ins has dropped to about 1 in 6 or 7 attempts ! Not sure what has changed but suspect incompatibility with the browser. All I want is a text based email program, bare bones and basic as I pay for data not time online ! Have emailed Yahoo support (once I found it ! ) but am now very tempted to go to gmail or hotmail instead…Greg
the email settings for my ssl & pop3 do not work on my phone. i have a moto ming a1200
How do i download games or apps to my nokia 6255i phone? It said content not supported
Leogurl35,
Try mobile.yahoo.com or wap.oa.yahoo.com. Either SHOULD work and deliver the WAP2 version for supported phones. However, Yahoo uses browser detection and if their capabilities database has your phone wrong you are pretty much out of luck. AFAIK, there is no Yahoo url that will force WAP2 content to be delivered.
Is there a different URL 4 the wap2 version of Yahoo? Current URL that I’m using is u.s.wap.yahoo.com. When using this yahoo, my phone screen does not show any illustrations. I have a Nokia 6255i and know it’s more than capable of running the wap2 version shown in this review. Please help! Thx
For me, the best way to read email on a phone is the gMail Java app. Second best is gMail’s mobile web version.
Can u give me any suggestion to create an email account for Nokia 3230 through mobile internet?
Anne,
A mobile friendly version of Yahoo’s privacy policy can be found at:
http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/raw?dp=genpri&fname=pri_home
Yahoo’s full privacy policy for desktop applications is at :
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/
Hello! Can you give me the link on how I can use that Yahoo service so I can see what the terms and conditions are? I’m having a hard time looking for it!
bongmusa,
I’m just guessing here but Yahoo passwords are case sensitive and most phones automatically capitalize the first letter of a word by default. So if your password is “secret” when you enter it on the phone if your not careful you get “Secret” There’s always a key that you can push to to force the next character to be lowercase. There should be some indication on the screen which mode your in. On my Nokia it says “Abc” in the top right corner of the screen, pressing # changes to “abc” which means the first character won’t be capitalized. On my Motorola, it says “ALPHA” (or “WORD” if I’m in T-9 mode), pressing and holding # changes it to “alpha” or “word”. I don’t know about SE’s but read the manual or experiment.
Dennis
im failing to login through my mobile phone, sony ericsson F500i please help cause every time i’ve intered my password it does not open why?