Comparison

Pics.io vs Shortwave

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

Head to head
About

Pics.io

This app provides a mobile interface for a digital asset management system, allowing users to find, view, share, and upload digital content. It integrates with cloud storage and offers features for project tracking and workflow automation.

Highlights
  • Search and view digital assets
  • Select and share assets
  • Create and share collections
  • Upload assets directly
  • Collaborate on assets
Read full description

Pics.io is the professional digital asset management system revolutionizing the way you find, reuse, update & share your digital content. Pics.io DAM works on top of your cloud storage (Google Drive or Amazon S3) and provides centralized access to your media, progress tracking for creative projects, automation of marketing workflows and many other benefits for any type of business. You can always find more information on our website. Pics.io mobile app offers a subset of the core Pics.io digital asset management functionality optimized for finding, viewing, sharing, and uploading new assets. Have access to all your favorite digital asset management features right at your fingertips: 1. Search and view assets 2. Select and send assets to others 3. Create and share collections on the fly 4. Upload assets directly to your DAM 5. Collaborate on your assets with ease Take your digital asset management to a new level with the Pics.io mobile app. We also encourage you to learn more about Pics.io’s mobile capabilities on our website.

About

Shortwave

This AI-powered email client streamlines your inbox with intelligent assistance for writing, organizing, and scheduling. It offers real-time team collaboration, advanced search, and customizable workflows to boost productivity.

Highlights
  • AI-powered email writing and drafting
  • Intelligent inbox organization and clutter removal
  • Real-time team collaboration and email sharing
  • AI-driven meeting scheduling
  • Advanced AI-powered search and analysis
  • Customizable workflows and AI snippets
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

Pics.io4 screens
Shortwave4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pics.io at 100% against Shortwave's 65%. Pics.io also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Shortwave's advantage is ratings volume (755 vs 3). 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

Pics.io holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortwave has 755 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Pics.io's written reviews are positive against 65% of Shortwave's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pics.io ships an update fortnightly, Shortwave every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Pics.io versus Shortwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPics.ioShortwave
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.7 (755 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better65.4% of reviews
Number of ratings3755 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTopTechPhoto inc.Shortwave Communications, Inc.

Customer experience

Pics.io

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Shortwave

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

Bugs and requests

Pics.io

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

Pics.io

No in-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pics.io free?
Pics.io 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, Pics.io or Shortwave?
Pics.io is rated higher. Pics.io averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Shortwave averages 4.7 from 755 ratings.
Do Pics.io or Shortwave have ads?
Neither Pics.io nor Shortwave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pics.io or Shortwave?
Pics.io ships an update fortnightly, and Shortwave every 4 weeks. Most recently, Pics.io was updated on November 3, 2026 and Shortwave on November 7, 2026.

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