Yahoo Mail is adding more AI to simplify desktop email

Yahoo is updating Yahoo Mail on the desktop with new AI capabilities and other features to help simplify email and task management.

One of the highlights is brief AI-generated summaries of emails. These summaries come complete with bulleted lists that highlight proposed tasks and other actions. It’s located under the new Priority inbox tab, which — like Gmail’s — uses AI to highlight what Yahoo thinks are your most important messages. Gmail recently announced a similar summaries feature for its mobile app, but it’s behind a paywall for Workspace and Google One AI Premium subscribers.

Along with AI-powered summaries, Yahoo is also making it easier to quickly access and act upon emails. Quick action buttons will now appear directly inside the inbox, letting users quickly add an event to a calendar, check in for flights, and track packages. Meanwhile, a new persistent “starred view” panel lets users quickly see and access their most important tasks or other things they’d like to revisit.

Last but not least, Yahoo Mail users can now link their inbox to other email accounts, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and AOL, so users can send and receive all their emails from within Yahoo Mail.

“People are craving better ways to streamline the daily activities that often bog us down like managing multiple email accounts, sorting out their schedules, reading through long messages, and tracking orders. The new features we’re launching are aimed at making life that much easier for anyone that relies on email,” said Kyle Miller, Yahoo Mail’s VP of product.

The features will be available to new users in the US and roll out to existing US users on an opt-in basis starting today. They’ll come to Yahoo Mail’s mobile app in the future.

This isn’t Yahoo Mail’s first dip into the AI world. Last summer, Yahoo Mail added a slew of generative AI capabilities. These included an improved search mode, the Shopping Save  feature to help users find forgotten gift cards and discount codes, and a writing assistant to help users craft emails using the appropriate tone.