Shortwave Is the Spiritual Successor to Google’s Inbox
Often, third-party apps exist to fill in the gaps left by developers. After all, Apple and Google create a lot of apps, and they need to balance the feature sets of those apps with their usability by the general public. So you end up with good apps that are easy to pick up but may lack the features that loyal users are looking for.
However, third-party developers can focus all their energy on creating one really good working application. Gmail might be fine for most, but for those who want maximum customization and efficiency, a non-Google version of the app might make sense.
That’s why it was a little weird when Google ditched Inbox back in 2014. It was like a third-party iteration of the Gmail app: “Packages” bundled specific types of emails, making it easy to quickly move large collections. junk mail immediately; “Highlights” showed important information from certain emails and intelligently added data that wasn’t there, such as flight information; In addition, productivity features such as reminders and snooze were added to the app before they were available in the Gmail app.
And that was just when it was introduced. Over time, Google has continued to add useful new features that are taken for granted today, such as unsubscribe , unsubscribe cards , and smart replies to respond to emails faster. Most Gmail users had the basic experience of using the main app, while those in the know were essentially sending emails from the future.
However, this will not last forever. Google killed Inbox back in 2019 with the promise of pushing its best features to Gmail. While some features have apparently been ported over, others, such as “Sets”, never made it. To this day, using Gmail is a frustrating experience that includes some modern and useful features, but still displays all your newsletters and junk mail in chronological order with a few important emails in between.
Shortwave is the Inbox successor we’ve been waiting for
Enter: Shortwave , a relatively new email app from ex-Google designers. According to a review by The Verge , Shortwave instantly evokes the feeling of using Inbox, right down to the user interface. The biggest similarity, and one feature that former Inbox users are likely to rave about, is the use of bundles to group similar emails. For example, you will see a bundle of promotions consisting of emails trying to sell you something or let you know about a deal. In Gmail, you’ll have to deal with these messages one by one and hope you don’t lose anything important along the way. But Shortwave makes it easy to drop all that at once.
You can also customize these packages with specific emails that you want to see grouped. If Shortwave ever makes a mistake, you can also fix it with smart labels. In addition, you can schedule when certain types of emails arrive in your inbox: if you only want to see newsletter emails at 5:00 pm after work is over, that’s your prerogative.
The app also uses artificial intelligence to help you manage your inbox, including email summaries and translations, and has a system for pinning important emails and setting aside others you don’t need to address right away. You can add multiple Gmail accounts (but unfortunately not other types of email accounts), customize your notifications (including when to schedule notifications for batches), link your emails to other apps, block tracking pixels, and lots of other useful features. (Yes, there is a dark mode.)
Shortwave is completely free to use, so you don’t have to pay to try out this Inbox successor. However, the free version limits you to 90 days of email history. If you’re the type who doesn’t need to dig too deep into your inboxes on a daily basis, this might be enough. However, if you frequently view emails from years ago, you can try the Shortwave subscription for $9/month.
Where to download Short Waves
Shortwave is available on iPhone, desktop and finally Android after a long testing period. Android Police reports that the Android version is more like a web app than a dedicated app, but seems to work well. In fact, the developers have placed all the important shortcuts at the bottom of the application to make it easier to use with one hand. This is currently not the case on iOS, so Android users seem to have a performance advantage.