I tried the "smartest" email app - Shortwave AI review
Education
Introduction
I've recently started using Shortwave, especially after the introduction of its new AI features. While many email apps with AI features can be hit-or-miss—take Spark, for instance, which I’ve used for a long time but rarely rely on its AI output due to inaccuracies—Shortwave has proven to be impressively effective. In this article, I'll share how to organize your inbox using Shortwave and showcase its AI functionalities.
Organizing Your Inbox with Shortwave
Cleaning Up Your Inbox
The first step in organizing your inbox is to clean out unnecessary or non-actionable items. Here’s how:
- Archive: If an email isn't necessary, simply archive it.
- Pin: For important emails that require follow-up, pin them.
- Snooze: For emails that aren't actionable right now, use the snooze feature to revisit them later.
Occasionally, you'll receive spam or newsletters that are hard to unsubscribe from. When that happens, Shortwave allows you to block these senders entirely with a few clicks. A unique feature is the ability to block all new senders, effectively preventing unwanted emails in the future.
Bundling Emails
To further declutter your inbox, Shortwave enables you to group similar or related emails into bundles. For example, if you receive numerous newsletters, you can label them all as "Newsletter" and have them arrive in a designated bundle. This method helps streamline your inbox.
Personally, I’ve set a custom rule for my newsletters to arrive at 8:00 AM daily, allowing me to read them during my morning routine without distractions during working hours. This feature, along with the ability to bundle promotional emails, calendar updates, and purchase confirmations, allows for easy archiving in one go.
Shortwave provides default labels for various email types, but you can also create custom labels to suit your needs. Applying a label to an email means it will automatically apply to future emails from that sender, saving time in the long run. Another useful feature is the drag-and-drop capability for manually grouping emails. This is beneficial for organizing emails that need replies, which I often categorize under "Respond" or "Follow-up."
Features of Shortwave
What sets Shortwave apart from other email applications isn’t just its organizational capabilities. Its AI features are exceptionally well-designed. One of the standout aspects is the AI assistant that you can communicate with at any time.
Powerful AI Assistant
The AI assistant can perform several tasks efficiently, such as:
Searching for Information: It quickly finds specific pieces of information within lengthy email threads, which previously felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. It also provides links to original emails for easy reference.
Summarizing Threads: If you're catching up, the assistant can summarize entire email threads, eliminating the need to read through everything.
Identifying Action Items: You can request the AI to identify actionable items or open questions, making it easier to keep track of tasks.
The AI assistant is accessible through the mobile app, which adds a layer of convenience for replying on the go.
Personalized Drafting
One of my favorite features of Shortwave is how it generates email drafts. Unlike most AI email tools, Shortwave allows you to personalize the AI’s writing style. By training the AI with your past emails, it learns how you communicate. When the AI drafts replies, they sound like you, which means I can often send them without any changes, drastically saving time.
Additionally, the AI supports multiple languages. I speak both English and Japanese, and I found the AI to manage my requests and generate drafts in Japanese quite effectively.
Limitations of Shortwave
However, there are some issues to be aware of. One significant limitation is that Shortwave currently only integrates with Gmail. This means that if you primarily use Outlook, iCloud, or other email services, you’ll find it challenging to use Shortwave effectively—you cannot send replies from these accounts directly, as they would appear to be sent from your Gmail account instead. While forwarding emails from other accounts to Gmail is possible, it doesn't offer the full functionality that could be desired.
Another downside is the inability to consolidate all email accounts in one view. Although I have two Gmail accounts linked to Shortwave, switching between them can be inconvenient.
Conclusion
Overall, I am very pleased with Shortwave. Given that my primary email accounts are Gmail-based, it was easy for me to adopt the platform. However, for users whose main accounts are with services like Outlook, Shortwave may not be the best fit. If you are interested, you can start using Shortwave right away.
Thank you for reading! Don’t forget to leave a like and subscribe to my channel for more insights. See you in the next article!
Keyword
- Shortwave
- AI features
- Inbox organization
- Email bundles
- Personalized drafting
- Gmail integration
- Email management
FAQ
1. What is Shortwave?
Shortwave is an email application that offers advanced organizational tools and AI features designed to help users manage their inbox effectively.
2. How does Shortwave's AI assistant work?
The AI assistant can search for specific information, summarize long email threads, and identify actionable items, streamlining email management.
3. Can I use Shortwave with non-Gmail accounts?
Shortwave currently only integrates with Gmail, making it difficult for users who primarily use Outlook or iCloud to manage their emails effectively.
4. Does Shortwave support multiple languages?
Yes, Shortwave's AI assistant can handle requests and generate drafts in multiple languages, including English and Japanese.
5. What are the benefits of bundling emails in Shortwave?
Bundling emails allows users to group similar or related emails, such as newsletters and promotional communications, for cleaner organization and easier archiving.
