Comparison

Shortwave vs Block until…

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 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/

About

Block until…

Read full description

Make distractions wait until you have done what matters. Block until… lets you choose apps, categories, or websites and decide when they become available again. Create independent rules for an Apple Health goal, a focused duration, or a recurring weekday schedule. THREE WAYS TO FOCUS • Health goals — keep selected distractions blocked until today's target is complete. • Focus timers — start a block from one minute to 24 hours. • Recurring schedules — repeat a same-day window on the weekdays you choose. RULES WORK TOGETHER Each rule owns its own private selection. If multiple active rules cover the same app, it stays blocked until every matching rule is clear. Pause one rule or pause everything without losing your setup. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your rules, opaque Screen Time selections, and derived Health progress stay on your iPhone. There is no account, backend, advertising, analytics, or cloud sync. Block until… is a self-control tool, not a medical device, parental-control service, or anti-tamper system. Screen Time, Health, and background callback behavior are provided by iOS. FREE AND PRO Save as many rules as you like and run one rule at a time for free. Block until… Pro lets up to 10 independent rules run together and is available monthly, annually, or as a lifetime purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Block until…4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Shortwave at none against Block until…'s 3. Shortwave also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On price and ads 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. Block until… sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Shortwave asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Shortwave versus Block until…: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShortwaveBlock until…
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (710 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews65.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings710 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShortwave Communications, Inc.KinLung Wong

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

Block until…

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Block until…

Subscriptions2
  • Block until… Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Block until… Pro Annual$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Block until… Pro Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Shortwave free?
Shortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Block until… free?
Block until… is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Shortwave or Block until… have ads?
Neither Shortwave nor Block until… shows ads.

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