Comparison

Shortwave vs IO Mail

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

IO Mail

Features
Read full description

IO Mail is an email app you don't just read — you manage your mail with it. MAIL HUB Every launch starts with a summary of your day: unread mail, messages from important people, today's tasks, overdue items, follow-ups awaiting a reply and snoozed mail, all on one screen. MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS Bring Iyonosfer, Gmail, Outlook and any IMAP account into one app. See all inboxes together and give each account its own color and signature. RULES Create rules by sender, subject, attachment or size: move to a folder, label, flag, mark as read, mute notifications, notify with priority or create a task automatically. For Iyonosfer accounts rules also run on the server, so unwanted notifications never reach your phone. FOLLOW-UPS AND EXPECTED MAIL Get reminded when a mail you sent goes unanswered. Expecting a message? Create an expectation; it's marked when the mail arrives and you're alerted if it doesn't. TASKS, NOTES, SNOOZE Turn a mail into a task with a due date and add it to your calendar. Take notes and send them as mail. Snooze a message and it returns to your inbox when the time comes. LABELS AND IMPORTANT PEOPLE Group mail with colored labels. Mark important people so their mail stands out in Mail Hub. Send unwanted senders straight to junk. CALENDAR INVITATIONS Accept or decline meeting invitations and add them to your device calendar. INSTANT NOTIFICATIONS New-mail notifications arrive within seconds for Iyonosfer accounts. Other accounts are checked in the background at regular intervals. BUILT FOR IPAD In landscape, folders, the message list and the message sit side by side. PRIVACY AND SECURITY No ads, no tracking. Passwords are kept in the device's secure storage and mail content stays on your device. Lock the app with Face ID. Remote images never load without your permission. IO Mail is developed by Iyonosfer Yazılım Hizmetleri.

Screenshots

Shortwave4 screens
IO Mail4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: IO Mail at weekly against Shortwave's every 4 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, IO Mail weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Shortwave versus IO Mail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShortwaveIO Mail
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (757 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews65.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings757 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShortwave Communications, Inc.Ali Kemal Celebioglu

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

IO Mail

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

None

IO Mail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shortwave free?
Shortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is IO Mail free?
IO Mail is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Shortwave or IO Mail have ads?
Neither Shortwave nor IO Mail shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shortwave or IO Mail?
Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, and IO Mail weekly. Most recently, Shortwave was updated on November 11, 2026 and IO Mail on November 6, 2026.

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