Shortwave, founded in 2020 by former Google engineers, rebuilds the email client itself around AI rather than adding a chatbot sidebar to an existing inbox: AI-powered search, automatic summarization of long threads, and drafting assistance are built into the core email experience rather than bolted onto a traditional client as an add-on feature.
That from-scratch approach targets a genuinely different problem than the meeting and note-taking tools elsewhere in this category: managing a demanding email inbox specifically, an old, foundational productivity problem AI has approached surprisingly rarely with a fully rebuilt client rather than a plugin on top of Gmail.
A free tier covers standard use, and paid plans start around $7 a month for more features. For someone specifically wanting an email experience rebuilt around AI from the ground up, rather than a plugin added to a traditional inbox, Shortwave's from-scratch approach addresses email management directly, a genuinely different category of tool than the meeting and note-taking competitors surrounding it.
