Shortwave

Shortwave is an AI‑native email client that automates inbox management, drafting, search, and scheduling using an embedded agentic assistant with full access to your email and calendar context. For tech professionals, it stands out by combining Gmail‑compatible delivery with a modern, bundle‑based UI and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)–backed AI that can reason over years of mail and attachments.

Introduction – Why Shortwave Stands Out

Shortwave differentiates itself from traditional email clients by treating AI as a first‑class primitive rather than a bolt‑on feature. The AI assistant is available from any screen, can summarize threads, draft replies, search semantically across your history, and even schedule meetings from natural-language commands.

Unlike simple Gmail extensions, Shortwave reimagines the whole email experience with bundles, channels, real‑time collaboration, and push‑notification controls, while preserving compatibility with the underlying Gmail infrastructure. This makes it compelling as both a productivity upgrade and a Superhuman‑style alternative for AI‑driven teams.

What Is Shortwave? – Background, Purpose, Technology

Shortwave is an AI‑powered email client and productivity platform built by ex‑Googlers to “keep the spirit of Google Inbox alive” while adding modern AI capabilities. It connects to existing Gmail accounts (personal and workspace) and provides a new interface on top, with apps for web, iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.

Technically, Shortwave’s AI assistant uses Retrieval Augmented Generation over your email and calendar: it selects tools, retrieves relevant messages or events, generates answers with LLMs, and post‑processes results with citations. The company explicitly states that your email data is not used to train their AI models, focusing instead on secure retrieval and on‑the‑fly reasoning.

Key Features – Main Functions

Shortwave’s feature set spans AI assistance, inbox organization, collaboration, and security.

1. AI email assistant and drafting
   • From any screen, you can open the assistant to write emails, improve drafts, translate text, summarize threads, or ask questions about your mail (e.g., “What did we agree with Acme last week?”).
   • The AI can generate personalized replies in seconds and “instant AI replies” provide full drafts with one tap, learning your writing style over time.
2. AI-powered search and analytics
   • Shortwave offers AI‑assisted search over your email and attachments, returning direct answers and analyses instead of only message lists.
   • Higher‑tier plans extend AI search history from 90 days up to multiple years or unlimited history, with per‑search thread limits that scale by plan.
3. Bundles, smart inbox, and prioritization
   • Borrowing from Google Inbox, Shortwave groups similar messages into bundles that can be expanded, snoozed, or marked done with a single click.
   • Smart prioritization and an inbox cleaner help surface important emails, bulk‑delete low‑value messages, and guard against junk.
4. Thread summarization and TL;DR
   • Any thread can be summarized with one click, and Shortwave can automatically add a TL;DR summary to outgoing messages.
   • This is particularly useful for long internal chains and complex customer threads.
5. Team collaboration and channels
   • Shortwave introduces channels and real‑time collaboration features, letting teams work together on shared inboxes, templates, and drafts.
   • Features include chat‑like thread UI, mentions, shared templates, and analytics on Pro/Business tiers.
6. Scheduling, notifications, and security
   • AI‑assisted scheduling helps find meeting times and manage calendars from within the client.
   • Advanced controls include batch delivery, natural-language snoozing, custom alerts, and PGP/SecureSend encryption for sensitive mail.

User Experience – Ease of Use, UI, Integrations

Shortwave’s UX is intentionally modern and “chat‑like” while remaining familiar enough for Gmail users.

• Interface and usability
  • The client features bundles, sidebars with labels and pinned senders, keyboard‑first navigation, dark/light themes, and customizable layouts.
  • GetApp rates ease of use 5.0/5 based on early user reviews, citing intuitive shortcuts and an inbox that “keeps users organized by default.”
• Cross‑platform and integrations
  • Apps are available for web, iOS, Android, and desktop, with seamless switching between multiple Gmail accounts.
  • Shortwave integrates with calendars and can link emails into external SaaS tools; users can also link to messages directly from other apps.
• Onboarding and migration
  • Onboarding is typically as simple as signing in with Google, authorizing access, and letting Shortwave sync; no MX record changes are required because Gmail remains the underlying provider.
  • Users can keep existing Gmail labels; built‑in labels and bundles add structure without forcing a full reorganization.

Performance and Results – Examples and Benchmarks

While there are no public BLEU/MOS‑style benchmarks, real‑world reports highlight meaningful productivity gains.

• Inbox throughput and organization
  • Reviews point to faster triage thanks to bundles, one‑click “mark done,” and natural-language snoozing, reducing time spent on low‑value messages.
  • AI summaries and instant replies reduce the need to read every message in a long thread, enabling quicker decision‑making.
• Search and retrieval quality
  • AI‑powered search can answer questions based on multiple threads and attachments, effectively serving as an email knowledge base.
  • RAG‑style retrieval means answers cite underlying emails, helping verify correctness and maintain trust.
• User and expert reviews
  • PCMag calls Shortwave a continuation of Google Inbox’s best ideas with AI‑first enhancements, rating features like bundles and thread summarization as major strengths.
  • Third‑party comparisons often position Shortwave as a serious alternative to Superhuman, especially for users who value AI more than raw speed alone.

Pricing and Plans – Free vs Paid

Pros and Cons – Balanced Summary

Best For – Ideal Users and Industries

Shortwave is best suited to knowledge‑heavy roles and teams that live in email and benefit from AI‑augmented workflows.

• Startup founders and product teams
  • High‑volume external and internal communication, need for quick decisions, and context‑rich email history make AI summaries and search highly valuable.
• Sales, customer success, and support
  • Thread summaries, read receipts, snooze/send‑later, and templates support multi‑touch outreach and follow‑up campaigns.
• Consultants and agencies
  • RAG search over client email histories and attachments accelerates reporting, proposal writing, and historical lookup.
• Engineering and operations leaders
  • AI search and summaries help keep up with cross‑functional threads and incident communications without reading every message line‑by‑line.

Final Verdict – Overall Rating and Insights

Shortwave delivers a mature AI email experience that meaningfully changes how professionals interact with their inbox: from bundles and smart prioritization to an embedded assistant that can write, search, and schedule. Its Gmail‑compatible backend, strong cross‑platform support, and clear pricing tiers make it a practical upgrade for both individuals and teams.

For tech professionals, an overall rating around 4.5/5 is warranted: excellent on AI depth, UX design, and productivity impact, with trade‑offs around the learning curve of a new client and subscription costs at higher tiers. Teams that view email as a central collaboration medium and are open to an AI‑forward workflow will derive the most value from Shortwave.

Conclusion – Key Takeaways and Recommendations

Shortwave should be viewed as an AI‑native email platform rather than a basic client, designed to make inboxes searchable, summarizable, and automatable through agentic AI. A pragmatic adoption path is to start on the Free or Personal tier with a subset of users, validate time saved on triage and response, then scale into Pro/Business for teams that need deeper AI search history, collaboration features, and analytics, while monitoring usage to balance value against per‑seat costs.