Intelligent email app powered by AI.

Email App Review: Shortwave

Screenshot of Shortwave Email App homepage.

When Google discontinued Inbox– their Gmail alternative– back in 2019,  there were many who mourned. 

Instead, they were stuck with a Gmail client that tried to incorporate the Inbox features (slightly unsuccessfully)

They even failed to bring over some of the features that made Inbox so appealing, such as email bundling!

While there are many different apps out there, particularly Gmail app alternatives, none seemed to really deliver what Inbox had. 

They’re either too expensive, have too many bells and whistles, or over-promise and under-deliver.

Enter Shortwave

For those looking for a no-fuss Gmail client, the Shortwave email app really could be what you’re looking for. Let’s dive into it together in this review and check it out!

What is Shortwave?

Developed by ex-Google and Firebase developers and led by CEO Andrew Lee, Shortwave takes over where Google’s Inbox left off. 

Launched in February 2022, Shortwave promised to reinvent your email so that you could “actually enjoy your Inbox”. 

That’s a big claim.

In terms of visuals, Shortwave looks incredibly similar to the short-lived Inbox, with a touch of Slack. Better still, it allows you to view your emails grouped together into conversations.

What the Shortwave email app claims to do is redesign your email experience, giving you control back over it. 

This is particularly handy if you have a million emails pouring out of your inbox daily, and don’t know where to begin to declutter!

Shortwave Features

Shortwave is available as a web client (both Mac and Windows), and as iOS and Android apps. 

Whatever you’re operating on, you’ll be able to download Shortwave to it– and Gmail is then easy to sync in.

While the most obvious feature is the email bundling without the need for tabs, there are plenty of other features to keep you using Shortwave.

Other features include:

✔️ The ability to pin emails. Stop hunting through your inbox for important threads, and put it right at the top where you’ll see it!

✔️ Custom snooze options. For the email-anxious amongst you, you can prevent your emails from drowning you first thing in the morning

✔️ The ability to thread, reorder, and label your emails with a simple drag-and-drop function. How many times have you wished you could re-order your inbox? With this function, you can!

✔️ The ability to use GIFs and emojis. Because sometimes, words are just not enough! You can also react to emails, just as you would in a chat client

✔️ The ability to use both rich text and Markdown. There are also a variety of shortcuts available, making composing emails much faster

✔️ Conversation history views

✔️ The ability to put your emails into Do Not Disturb mode. Ideal for those needing to take a break from emails for a bit

✔️ Smart threads and thread links. In addition, you can view all conversations with a particular person– all at the click of a button. Extremely handy for when you need to review your emails to find one particular topic

✔️ The ability to convert text to quotes, and a ‘quick quote’ function, where you can quote from a previous message

✔️ Dark mode. Honestly, who doesn’t love a dark mode that’s easier on the eyes?

Ultimately, Shortwave wants to help you to get to a zero inbox, and all of these features help you in your quest to achieve that. 

There are, of course, push notifications available as well, but these are customisable with a simple toggle interface. 

You can also prevent spam and promotions from even making it into your inbox to begin with by using the “Skip Inbox” function.

Shortwave treats emails like a to-do list, so instead of sending an email to trash, you simply mark it as ‘Done’

This then moves it into the ‘Done’ folder, where you’ll still have access to it if you need it in the future! You’ll also still be able to snooze, pin, and move the email back to the original Inbox.

One of the best parts of Shortwave is that it’s an email client that is still being improved and worked on. This means that, while all of these features are great, they won’t be the end of development.

Finally, from a technical standpoint, that also means that developers will actively be working on any bugs and will likely be more receptive to feedback.

AI Features

✔️ Email Summarization: Shortwave uses AI to summarize any email thread in just a click. The AI provides a brief summary of the key points, which is handy if you don’t have time to read everything. This feature is called “Smart Summaries” and it works great for newsletters, long-winded conversations, and threads you got added to late.

✔️ TLDR Summaries: The app can automatically add a “TLDR” summary to the bottom of messages you write.

✔️ Inbox Organization: Similar to Google’s now defunct Inbox product, Shortwave organizes your inbox by prioritizing conversations with people and tucking away the rest into their own bundles, such as “newsletters,” “travel,” and “purchases”.

✔️ AI Assistant: Shortwave is introducing an AI assistant for your email experience4. This AI-powered virtual assistant resides within your email inbox and leverages GPT-4, complete with AI search capabilities, to provide users with an assistant that can do basically anything you want within your email4. It’s fully conversational, allowing users to seamlessly combine multiple features simply by asking follow-up questions4.

These features help to optimize your workflow, making your email experience more efficient and productive.

Shortwave Pricing

The basic Shortwave plan is free, but only gives you up to 90 days of past email history and limited team features. 

Beyond this, you’ll need to shell out for the Standard plan, which will set you back $9 a month, per user. With this plan you’ll also only have access to 10 Members, 5 Channels, and 5 Guests.

With the Standard plan, you have access to your complete email history as well as full team features, including workspace roles for team members (similar to Slack). 

With this plan you can have an unlimited number of Members and Channels (up to 1,000 initially, but if you need more, you can contact Shortwave), as well as up to 10 paid members, in lieu of Guests.

There is a third plan- the Enterprise plan- which isn’t yet available. 

It does, however, promise everything from the Standard plan and is geared towards bigger companies who may need a little more from their email client. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on, if this is something that interests you.

There’s currently only a monthly billing cycle available (and only in USD), but this could change in the future.

Shortwave Pros and Cons

While Shortwave has plenty of pros on the list, and a lot of folks who are already die-hard fans, there are also a few shortcomings. Let’s break it down:

Pros

👍 Intuitive email grouping and threading

👍 If you were a fan of Google Inbox, then this feels like a sleeker upgraded version

👍 Can increase productivity by marking your emails as ‘Done’, by tricking your brain into believing you’ve achieved a task

👍 Basic plan is free

👍 You have more control over what you see and how you organize your Inbox

👍 Works alongside your Gmail, so you can keep the same email address

👍 Functions similar to Slack, making interactions more chat-like and easier to stay on top of

Cons

👎 More development is needed on the Android app to make it as impressive as the iOS and web client versions

👎 In order to access more than 90 days of your email history, you’ll have to pay for it

👎 As it’s still early days for Shortwave, there are still a few bugs to work out, eg. notifications can sometimes be a little hit and miss

👎 Unlike Gmail, there is no Spam folder, and a few other features are still lacking

👎 While Shortwave may try to imitate the Slack experience, all of the messages are still emails

👎 Shortwave is more targeted towards business users, who would need the real-time chat/messaging services as well as the ability to control shared inboxes

What Users Say about Shortwave 

Overwhelmingly, users love Shortwave

Of course, most of these users are people who loved the Google Inbox experience and have been looking for something to replace it. 

They praise the minimalist look and ability to group emails, claiming that Shortwave has helped to up their productivity and organizational skills.

However, some have commented that there are still some features missing which Shortwave could benefit from. These include the option to add tasks, as well as reminders that recur.

Another user commented that the animations were a little slow, after which the developers made them faster and more responsive. 

That’s the huge benefit of Shortwave—as it’s still so new to the market, the developers are able to improve features based on your feedback. 

This was the same with the Landscape mode which was lacking for larger devices, as well as the ability to delete threads: Both are now updated thanks to user feedback.

The biggest complaint is that Shortwave email app is simply missing some basic features and bugs, especially around speech-to-text and notifications (especially badge notifications). 

However, judging by their response to other feedback, it feels like this may all just be a matter of time.

The Verdict on Shortwave: Is it Worth it? 

If you’ve been searching for an alternative to Google Inbox for the last few years, then the Shortwave email app could be the answer to your inbox woes.

While it certainly offers plenty of features to optimize productivity and help you declutter your inbox, it’s worth bearing in mind that Shortwave is still a relative newcomer to the market. 

There may currently be some features lacking, but it doesn’t look like the developer team are too far behind on their updates.

It may be hard to justify the $9 a month cost for individual users, especially when other clients are already free. 

However, if the features of Shortwave and ability to organize your inbox outweigh the cost, then this could be the app for you! 

If you have a small-to-medium business and are struggling to integrate your Gmail and Slack communications, Shortwave could be an excellent option to get everything in one place and make your organization’s communications more efficient than ever.


Sources

  1. https://www.theverge.com/22990303/shortwave-email-google-gmail-inbox-successor-hands-on
  2. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-shortwave-gmail-client-might-be-the-smartest-evolution-of-the-gmail-inbox-yet
  3. https://www.xda-developers.com/shortwave-email
  4. https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/15/shortwave-gets-9m-to-bring-back-google-inbox
  5. https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/how-shortwave-taught-me-to-stop-stressing-about-my-inbox-and-learn-to-love-email-9b38c8fed15
  6. https://9to5google.com/2022/03/01/shortwave-hands-on-sliding-into-the-inbox-void-video
  7. https://www.gearrice.com/update/this-is-shortwave-an-email-client-with-which-to-replace-gmail
  8. https://www.producthunt.com/products/shortwave-6/reviews
  9. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shortwave-email/id1559784681