Comparison

Helpwise vs Shortwave

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

Head to head
About

Helpwise

Streamline team communication by managing emails, SMS, and WhatsApp conversations in a shared inbox. Collaborate with colleagues, assign tasks, and track key metrics to improve customer support efficiency.

Highlights
  • Shared inbox for email, SMS, and WhatsApp
  • Team collaboration tools (tagging, chat)
  • Workload distribution and assignment
  • Performance analytics and reporting
  • Integration with business tools
  • Individual logins for enhanced security
Features
Read full description

Make It Easier For Your Team To Manage Customer Conversations. Easily Handle Emails, SMS, and WhatsApp as a team. As a business grows, it becomes a struggle to manage customer, sales or internal emails(billing, hiring) across the company. And, then we make a blunder by sharing email logins among team members. We understand the chaos that it creates because we have been through the same pain during our previous gigs & businesses. So, this is exactly why we built Helpwise - the shared inbox that really works! With SMS and WhatsApp Inbox features, your team members can provide support to tens of thousands of customers by efficiently sharing the workload with each other. Friendly Interface We all love Gmail, Outlook & other awesome email clients. So, we have made sure that Helpwise feels as easy as these common email services. Basically, you won't miss them here. Share Inbox, Not Password Every team member will get own separate login to access same email address. So, no more password sharing. Better security with higher productivity! Collaborate With Team Members Don't shout out loud to clear your doubts before answering an email. Tag, Assign or Chat with your team members within the shared inbox. It is safe to say, Helpwise is part-Shared Inbox, part-Collaboration software. Distribute Work Load Getting 100s of emails every day? Easily share these emails among your team members and reach Inbox Zero faster. Track Every Key Metric Helpwise provides you detailed analytics on your email frequency, response rates & individual performance. So, now that you can measure it, you can easily improve it. Integrate With Business Tools Automate processes & share information across your other business tools. For example, log all your phone calls & texts with the customer within the email thread. Or, fetch order details within your inbox. In the nutshell, Helpwise is a clean, feature-loaded & made-for-business Gmail that we all wish for.

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

Helpwise4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Shortwave at 4.8 against Helpwise's 2.4. Shortwave also leads on review sentiment (65% vs 33%) and ratings volume (710 vs 7). Helpwise'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, 4.8 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortwave has 710 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Helpwise'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 3, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Helpwise versus Shortwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHelpwiseShortwave
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.4 (7 ratings)4.8 (710 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews65.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7710 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSLABS Technologies Private LimitedShortwave Communications, Inc.

Customer experience

Helpwise

All ratings7 ratings
Positive28.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative71.4%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

Shortwave

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

Bugs and requests

Helpwise

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

Helpwise

No in-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Helpwise free?
Helpwise 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, Helpwise or Shortwave?
Shortwave is rated higher. Helpwise averages 2.4 out of 5 from 7 ratings, while Shortwave averages 4.8 from 710 ratings.
Do Helpwise or Shortwave have ads?
Neither Helpwise nor Shortwave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Helpwise or Shortwave?
Helpwise ships an update every 3 weeks, and Shortwave every 3 weeks. Most recently, Helpwise was updated on October 3, 2026 and Shortwave on October 13, 2026.

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