Shortwave vs Superhuman

What Shortwave is

Shortwave rebuilds the Gmail experience around bundles, AI summaries and fast keyboard navigation. It is Gmail underneath, so migration risk is low and labels keep working, while the surface is rebuilt for speed and summarisation. That also means it is Gmail-only, which rules it out for anyone on another provider.

What Superhuman is

Superhuman is a keyboard-first email client built around speed, with AI drafting and follow-up reminders. Everything is a keyboard shortcut and the interface is stripped to make triage fast, which is why heavy-volume users pay a premium for it. If your inbox is not the bottleneck in your day, that premium buys nothing.

What Shortwave is built to do

Bundled inbox

Groups related mail into bundles delivered on a schedule.

AI summaries and search

Summarises long threads and answers questions over the mailbox.

Gmail-native

Works on top of an existing Gmail account without migration.

What Superhuman is built to do

Keyboard-first triage

Runs the whole inbox from shortcuts without touching the mouse.

Split inboxes

Separates important mail from newsletters and notifications automatically.

Follow-up reminders

Resurfaces sent mail that has not received a reply.

Choose Shortwave if

• Heavy Gmail users drowning in threads.

Choose Superhuman if

• People whose job is largely email and who value minutes saved.

Shortwave: pros & cons

• AI summaries of long threads
• Fast keyboard-driven interface
• Works on top of existing Gmail
• Gmail only
• Subscription on top of your mail account
• AI features require sending content to a model

Superhuman: pros & cons

• Very fast keyboard workflow
• Onboarding session teaches the shortcuts
• Good follow-up and snooze handling
• Expensive per user for an email client
• Gmail and Outlook only
• Benefit depends on email volume