Aidenly vs Shortwave: an AI assistant beside your inbox, or an AI email client instead of it
Shortwave replaces Gmail with an AI-native email client built for teams. Aidenly works alongside the Gmail you already use. Which fits depends on whether you want a new inbox or a better handle on the one you have.
Aidenly vs Shortwave
The short version: Shortwave is an AI-powered email client — you replace Gmail's interface with theirs. Aidenly is an AI assistant that works alongside the Gmail you already use. Both are good at what they do. They are answers to different questions.
We build Aidenly, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to describe Shortwave accurately enough that someone at Shortwave would recognise it, and to say plainly where they're the better choice.
The architectural difference that drives everything else
Shortwave is your email interface. You install it, and it becomes where you read and write mail — on web, iOS, and Android — sitting on top of your Gmail account.
Aidenly sits beside Gmail. You keep reading mail wherever you read it now. Aidenly reads it too, and gives you a separate surface: a briefing of what matters, an attention list, and a memory you can ask questions of.
Everything below follows from that one difference.
| Shortwave | Aidenly | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An AI email client | An assistant beside your existing client |
| Do you change how you read email? | Yes — Shortwave becomes your inbox | No — keep using Gmail, Apple Mail, whatever |
| Built primarily for | Teams | Individuals |
| Can it send email? | Yes | No — read-only by design |
| Free tier | No (free trial) | Yes |
| Memory | Per-user, persistent | Organised by domain, across years |
| Main surface | A better inbox | What needs you today, and what it remembers |
Where Shortwave is genuinely stronger
If you want these, choose Shortwave.
It can actually act on your mail. Shortwave writes and sends. Aidenly's access to your mail is read-only — it cannot send, delete, or modify anything — deliberately, but it's a real limitation. If you want an assistant that clears your inbox, Aidenly does not do that.
It's built for teams. Thread sharing, comments, shared labels. Aidenly has no team features at all.
It's a complete, polished client. Years of work on a full email application across three platforms. Aidenly is not an email client and does not try to be.
Its search is excellent. AI-powered search over long history is a core strength.
Where Aidenly is different
You don't have to switch clients. This is the biggest practical difference. Adopting Shortwave means moving your daily email habit into a new app — a real change, and the reason many people try an email client and drift back. Aidenly asks for none of that: your inbox stays where it is.
It's built for one person, not a team. Shortwave's pricing is per-seat and its features are collaborative. Aidenly is priced and designed for an individual, including a free tier that doesn't expire.
Memory is organised by domain. Both products remember things, and they take different approaches. Aidenly's memory is structured by domain — work, finance, family — and built to answer questions about your life across years: "what did the vendor say about the Q3 invoice?" If cross-year recall of specifics matters to you, compare the two directly; it's the axis we optimised for.
Attention, not inbox zero. Shortwave helps you process your inbox faster. Aidenly tries to make most of it something you never open — surfacing the few threads that genuinely need you, and quietly remembering the rest.
Read-only is the point. Aidenly requests only read permissions. It cannot send mail as you because Google never granted it that ability. For some people that's a dealbreaker; for others it's exactly why they're willing to connect at all.
Which should you pick?
Choose Shortwave if: you're willing to change email clients, you want AI that drafts and sends, you work in a team that shares threads, or you want the fastest possible inbox processing.
Choose Aidenly if: you want to keep your current inbox, you want a briefing of what matters rather than a better inbox, you want something that remembers your context over years, or you're not comfortable giving an AI permission to send mail as you.
They're not mutually exclusive. Shortwave replaces your client; Aidenly reads alongside whatever client you use. Running both is possible.
On pricing
Both are paid products and both change their pricing from time to time, so we won't quote theirs — it would be out of date before you read this. Check shortwave.com/pricing and our pricing page directly.
The structural difference worth knowing: Shortwave is per-seat with no free tier. Aidenly has a free tier that doesn't expire, and a single-user paid plan.
Aidenly is a private AI assistant for Gmail. Read-only, verified by Google's OAuth review and an independent CASA security assessment. See how it works.
Google™ and Gmail™ are trademarks of Google LLC. Shortwave is a trademark of its respective owner. Aidenly is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.