Comparison

Shortwave vs Imp Translate

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

Head to head
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/

About

Imp Translate

This app translates web pages bilingually within Safari, displaying translations below original text for easy comparison. It offers user-configurable translation providers and only activates when requested, ensuring no background activity.

Highlights
  • Bilingual page translation in Safari
  • Translations appear below original text
  • User-configurable translation providers
  • No background activity or content scripts
  • Translation activated on demand
Features
Read full description

Translates web pages bilingually in Safari. The translation appears below each block of original text instead of replacing it, so you can always check the source. Nothing runs until you ask. No content scripts injected, no overlays, no background activity before you trigger translation. Translation starts when you tap the extension in Safari's AA menu, and stops when you toggle it off. Bring your own provider. The extension calls Microsoft Translator (default, free, no key required), Google Translate, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with credentials you configure. There is no third-party proxy in between. What it does not do: floating translate buttons, hover popups, in-place text replacement, dictionary lookup, input box translation, document translation, video subtitles. The scope is kept narrow on purpose.

Screenshots

Shortwave4 screens
Imp Translate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Shortwave at Free against Imp Translate's $4.99. Shortwave also leads on ratings volume (757 vs 1). Imp Translate's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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

Shortwave is free to download; Imp Translate costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Imp Translate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortwave has 757 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, Imp Translate every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Shortwave versus Imp Translate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShortwaveImp Translate
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.7 (757 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews65.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings757 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB8 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperShortwave Communications, Inc.KAI WANG

Customer experience

Shortwave

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

Imp Translate

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and 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

Imp Translate

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

None

Imp Translate

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shortwave free?
Shortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Imp Translate free?
Imp Translate costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shortwave or Imp Translate?
Imp Translate is rated higher. Shortwave averages 4.7 out of 5 from 757 ratings, while Imp Translate averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Shortwave or Imp Translate have ads?
Neither Shortwave nor Imp Translate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shortwave or Imp Translate?
Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, and Imp Translate every 2 days. Most recently, Shortwave was updated on November 11, 2026 and Imp Translate on November 5, 2026.

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