Comparison

Zero Inbox vs Shortwave

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Zero Inbox

This email application streamlines inbox management with customizable multi-action swipe gestures. Effortlessly process emails by assigning multiple tasks to a single swipe, such as archiving, trashing, or sending to a to-do list. Enjoy a fast and intuitive email experience.

Highlights
  • Multi-action swipe gestures
  • Customizable swipe actions
  • Fast loading speed
  • Integration with Todoist
  • Smart avatar loading
  • Dark mode
Features
Read full description

Zero Inbox is an email app designed for zeroing your inbox via enjoyable swipe actions. Unlike traditional email's swipe action can only allow one action per swipe, we provide multi-action swipe for each direction, empower you to process your email effortlessly on daily basis. For example, for swiping right, you can choose - Swipe right-down-right to push the email to Todoist - Swipe straight right to archive - Swipe right-up-right to trash We also worked hard to make the app to provide blazing fast loading speed. There are more awesome features to come in the following updates: - Customizable swipe actions - In mail swipe action (like Tinder but for email) - Multi-step swipe (one swipe can do many things like Mark read + Archive + push to Todoist) - Smart avatar (load sender's avatar from known email list or public avatar database) - Dark mode

About

Shortwave

This AI-powered email client streamlines your inbox with intelligent organization, writing assistance, and team collaboration tools. It helps you manage emails, schedule meetings, and turn messages into actionable tasks, all while learning your unique style.

Highlights
  • AI-powered email writing and drafting
  • Intelligent inbox organization and clutter removal
  • Real-time team collaboration and email assignment
  • AI-assisted meeting scheduling
  • Email to-do list conversion
  • Customizable AI prompts and automations
  • Management of multiple Gmail accounts
Read full description

AI-NATIVE EMAIL FOR BUSINESS "The AI revolution is coming for your email" – Business Insider "This app is like ChatGPT for your email, and it changed my life" – Digital Trends "The Google Inbox successor I’ve been waiting for" – The Verge YOUR AI EMAIL ASSISTANT Supercharge your productivity with advanced AI & real-time team collaboration. Write emails, improve drafts, schedule meetings, analyze threads, translate text, and more using Shortwave’s powerful AI Assistant. ORGANIZE YOUR INBOX WITH AI With 1-tap, Shortwave’s AI Assistant can identify urgent emails, group threads into todos, and sweep away the remaining clutter so you can get to inbox zero with zero effort. SHARE & DISCUSS EMAILS WITH YOUR TEAM Get the right people involved and bring everyone up to speed fast with private team comments and live thread sharing. Assign emails to teammates to delegate next steps. WRITE EMAILS WITH AI Write personalized emails with AI in seconds, or use instant AI replies to get full drafts in just one tap. Shortwave learns your unique writing style and even facts about you from the emails you send. IMPROVE AND PROOFREAD DRAFTS Complete your drafts, adjust length and tone, translate into other languages, and more with a built-in AI editor. SEARCH AND FIND ANSWERS Use AI-powered search to find emails fast, or to analyze your entire team's emails & attachments for the answers you need SCHEDULE MEETINGS WITH AI Spend less time juggling calendars with AI-powered scheduling features. Create events, send AI-generated scheduling emails, accept calendar events with one click, and more. GET ORGANIZED WITH SPLITS AND BUNDLES Focus your time & attention by dividing your inbox into tabs for important emails, specific senders, labels & even custom queries. Use bundles for fast triage of promotions, newsletters, updates, and other automated emails. TURN EMAILS INTO TODOS Transform your overflowing inbox into an organized list of action items. Group, rename, prioritize, and add notes, right in your inbox. SET DELIVERY SCHEDULES Avoid interruptions by deferring when emails arrive in your inbox, so you only receive emails when you want them. VIEW READ STATUSES See when people read your emails to get the context you need to prioritize your time and write effective follow-ups. Close more deals and collaborate better with your team. SCREEN UNWANTED SENDERS Guard your inbox from noise with one-click block and unsubscribe. FINE-TUNE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS Granular push controls let you minimize distractions with personalized alerts for specific senders and types of emails. CUSTOMIZE EVERYTHING Customize AI prompts and automate your team’s work with AI Snippets & AI Automations. Adjust tons of details in settings, and make Shortwave yours with custom colors and beautiful light & dark modes. MANAGE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS Organize all of your Gmail accounts from one app and seamlessly switch between them in a single swipe. SYNCS WITH GMAIL Migrate seamlessly to Shortwave from your existing Gmail or Google Workspace account with all of your labels, filters, and other settings imported. If you have questions or want to learn more about Shortwave and best practices, you can find resources here: https://www.shortwave.com/docs/

Screenshots

Zero Inbox3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Shortwave at 4.7 against Zero Inbox's 3.7. Shortwave also leads on ratings volume (749 vs 3) and review sentiment (65% vs 50%). Zero Inbox's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shortwave holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortwave has 749 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Zero Inbox's written reviews are positive against 65% of Shortwave's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Zero Inbox versus Shortwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZero InboxShortwave
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.7 (3 ratings)4.7 (749 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews65.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3749 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLaunch Platform LLCShortwave Communications, Inc.

Customer experience

Zero Inbox

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Shortwave

All ratings659 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.8%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews211 reviews
Positive65.4%
Neutral10.9%
Negative23.7%

Bugs and requests

Zero Inbox

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Shortwave

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unreliable email bundling and threading
  • Inconsistent performance and stability issues
  • Bugs with email forwarding and attachment handling

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more email providers
  • Improve iPad and tablet optimization
  • Enhance customization options for labels and actions
  • Integrate with more productivity apps and services
  • Provide better transparency around data usage and privacy

In-app purchases

None

Zero Inbox

No in-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Zero Inbox free?
Zero Inbox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Shortwave free?
Shortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Zero Inbox or Shortwave?
Shortwave is rated higher. Zero Inbox averages 3.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Shortwave averages 4.7 from 749 ratings.
Do Zero Inbox or Shortwave have ads?
Neither Zero Inbox nor Shortwave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Zero Inbox or Shortwave?
Zero Inbox ships an update every 3 weeks, and Shortwave every 3 weeks. Most recently, Zero Inbox was updated on October 9, 2026 and Shortwave on October 22, 2026.

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