Though it’s currently invite-only, considering the popularity of the question-and-answer site (it currently boasts more than 3.1 million monthly visitors in the U.S. alone), it seems that it’ll only be a matter of time before Yahoo Answers is opened to the general public. The app was actually initially debuted over the summer, at which point it was named Yahoo Hive. But at the beginning of November, the app was renamed to be a bit more straightforward about its functionality.
As TechCrunch notes, this isn’t the first app Yahoo has released as part of its mobile push. There are now a number of native apps from the tech company, including those focused on weather, search, sports, and finance. These apps may be Yahoo’s lifeline as it struggles to overcome its rocky recent history, most notably its enormous data breach that ultimately compromised the information of around 500 million Yahoo users. As a result of the scandal, potential buyer Verizon has reportedly asked for a $1 billion discount in its acquisition of Yahoo.
And while Yahoo Answers as a mobile app may not be able to single-handedly revive Yahoo, it’ll almost certainly be good for a laugh. After all, with famously terrible questions (and even worse answers — like this one), how could you not spend time on this new app? The service itself will be very similar to the web version, though users can upload photos, respond using emojis, and access the web from within the app to source your questions and/or answers.
If you’d like to be invited to try out Yahoo Answers, you’ll need to request an invite code from yan-invites@yahoo-inc.com. Happy questioning!
