Small but powerful app
The app itself is very small (less than 25MB at time of review) which is really nice! Will say tho that in the end it’s just an email interface but I like it wayy more than Gmails (close to 1 GB of space)…
Still fails miserably at basic tasks
I had high hopes, but this app still is so prone to mistakes that its usefulness is significantly reduced. Just one example: the last time I tried adding an event to my calendar, it kept messing up the time zone despite me telling it explicitly which time zone to use. For some reason it seemed obsessed with converting everything to and from Eastern Time even though I'm in CST. I ended up having to manually edit the event and switch it to the right time. These types of issues are constant with this app. It's like having a bad employee that you're almost better off firing and doing without.
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Unreliable
Good idea but totally unreliable with a poorly architected backend. The back end keeps crashing on me with an error and no one can help. Now the Mac desktop app kept freezing my computer and bricking out. Tried everything and now I’m left with a mess because it doesn’t sync over.
Serious problem
Shortwave is an excellent email client overall - clean interface, thoughtful AI features, and a strong focus on productivity without unnecessary complexity.
However, the current bundling logic creates serious usability issues in real workflows. Based on observed behavior, bundling appears to rely heavily on internal thread identifiers rather than subject changes. As a result, emails may continue to be grouped into a single bundle even when the subject line is modified.
In practice, this becomes problematic for recurring reports or automated messages where the subject changes only slightly (for example, a date update). Over time, this can result in bundles containing 100+ emails. Opening such bundles may take several minutes to load and can sometimes cause the application to freeze or crash.
While bundling is clearly intended to help process similar emails efficiently, the current implementation appears too aggressive and lacks sufficient controls for separating logically distinct conversations.
It would significantly improve usability if bundling logic placed greater weight on subject changes, or if users were given more granular control over how bundles are formed or split. Performance safeguards for very large bundles would also improve reliability.
Overall, Shortwave is a very promising AI-first email client, but refining the bundling behavior would greatly improve the user experience.
However, the current bundling logic creates serious usability issues in real workflows. Based on observed behavior, bundling appears to rely heavily on internal thread identifiers rather than subject changes. As a result, emails may continue to be grouped into a single bundle even when the subject line is modified.
In practice, this becomes problematic for recurring reports or automated messages where the subject changes only slightly (for example, a date update). Over time, this can result in bundles containing 100+ emails. Opening such bundles may take several minutes to load and can sometimes cause the application to freeze or crash.
While bundling is clearly intended to help process similar emails efficiently, the current implementation appears too aggressive and lacks sufficient controls for separating logically distinct conversations.
It would significantly improve usability if bundling logic placed greater weight on subject changes, or if users were given more granular control over how bundles are formed or split. Performance safeguards for very large bundles would also improve reliability.
Overall, Shortwave is a very promising AI-first email client, but refining the bundling behavior would greatly improve the user experience.
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Scam
Had the same email for 15 years. Within 5 days of using this app, my email was logged into by other people who proceeded to steal all of my info and email my financial service companies attempting to transfer assets.
