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Yahoo didn’t disable email forwarding to stop users fleeing

Published Oct 14th, 2016 3:02PM EDT
Yahoo Mail Forwarding Feature
Image: REUTERS

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A few days ago, Yahoo removed one of the basic features you expect from an email provider. Yahoo Mail lost the email forwarding feature, and the timing looked very peculiar. Yahoo seemed to have removed the feature to make it harder for users to jump ship in light of the two scandals that hit Yahoo. First, Yahoo confirmed that some 500 million accounts were hacked in 2014. A few days later, a report revealed that Yahoo spied on its customers on behalf of the government.

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On Friday, Yahoo announced that the forwarding feature is now back, which means you can put it to good use while you leave Yahoo Mail behind.

“Last week, we temporarily disabled the ability to add new automatic forwarding in Yahoo Mail,” Yahoo Mail vice president of product management Michael Albers wrote in a blog post. “As of today, auto-forward is enabled again for all Mail users. We apologize for the interruption.”

“Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. The feature was temporarily disabled as part of this process.”

So there you have it! This was planned all along, Yahoo says. It wasn’t a measure meant to prevent you from leaving. The blog post doesn’t mention anything about the recent hack or spying reports.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.