Changelog

Inbox zero, even on the go: Quickly triage new emails without needing to open the app. Pin, delete, or mark emails as done right from your notifications on web, iOS, and Android.

⚙️ Product changes

• “Add note” option added to the multi-select menu

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved the default schedule for available hours setting
• Improved the accuracy of sender display names when viewing emails
• Added landscape support for Android tablets
• Fixed a bug causing attachment display errors on Android
• Fixed a broken support link on iOS

Reach inbox zero faster than ever: Select multiple emails at once to take bulk actions and quickly clear away clutter. You can also use shortcuts like x to select, shift+click to select a range, orcmd+click to select multiple individual items.

🚢 New features

• Push notification actions on Android
• Pinch-to-zoom HTML emails & images on Android
• Home screen app shortcuts on Android & PWA (desktop & mobile)
• Setting to turn off app badge notification for PWA (desktop & mobile)

⚙️ Product changes

• iOS app now has background sync for faster loading
• Android notifications are now grouped by account
• Shortwave now appears as a “Share to” option on Android for links & media

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved display of sender and contact names across the app
• Added support for landscape mode on Android
• Fixed a bug causing a blue highlight while tapping on Android
• Fixed a bug that prevented the “Add note” field from being edited on Android
• Improved text selection ability on Android
• Improved back button behavior on Android

Shortwave for Android: Goodbye beta, hello 1.0! We redesigned our Android app from top to bottom, packed it with new features, and cut load times by 90%.

🚢 New features

• Added "Delete" and "Pin" swipe actions so we now have dual swipe actions in both directions (and an experiment to customize these swipe actions) on Android

⚙️ Product changes

• “Skip inbox” is now configurable via Delivery Schedule settings
• Improved thread and bundle preview display on mobile
• Clear push notifications when opening app (PWA and Android)
• Made search suggestions multi-line and with larger tap targets on mobile
• Gave dropdown menu larger tap targets on mobile
• Adjusted maximum height of thread compose box for better readability on Android
• Added support for making Shortwave your default mail app on Android
• Added swipe to switch between multiple accounts on Android
• Redesigned Android app navigation:
  • Removed top bar
  • New bottom bar
  • New fullscreen compose page
  • Reduced horizontal padding across app
  • Redesigned search screen

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed bug preventing calendar permissions on Android
• Fixed bug with multi-selecting attachments being broken on Android
• Fixed several focus bugs with the thread pane compose box on Android
• Fixed broken “Copy link” thread action on Android
• Fixed several hover-related bugs which made it impossible to take the action on non-hover devices (e.g. delete attachments, manage settings lists) on Android
• Fixed search input focus behavior when navigating to a favorited search on Android
• Fixed broken "Write to support" and "Send debug logs" buttons from settings on Android
• Improved spacing and resolved overflow issues on mobile snooze picker
• Hid keyboard shortcut hints on non-keyboard devices
• Improved app start time for large inboxes on iOS
• Improved handling for subject-only messages on web & iOS
• Fixed bugs around inconsistent bundling and ordering across platforms
• Improved thread and bundle previews on web for better subject readability

Custom schedules: Customize your default times for features like snooze, scheduled send, and delivery schedules from your General settings

🚢 New features

• Auto-advance setting controls what happens after you mark something done
• RSVP to calendar invites on iOS

⚙️ Product changes

• New onboarding experience on web & Android
• Clicking the top of a popped-out thread now minimizes it
• Added support for backspace as an alternative shortcut for delete
• Gmail filters can be viewed from the Firewall settings page
• Added new Support settings and links to advanced settings on iOS

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved inbox responsiveness on web & iOS
• Improved iOS app startup time
• Unified compose experiences on web with consistent styling
• Added support for dynamic list sizing on web
• Added search support for non-Roman characters
• Fixed bullet point sizing
• Polished Favorites page on Android
• Fixed a bug when removing attachments on Android

Pop out threads: Compose new drafts and view any thread in a pop-out window to easily reference messages as you read or write.

⚙️ Product changes

• Redesigned settings and added the Overview page for clarity and control of your Shortwave experience
• Redesigned sidebar for streamlined common actions like composing new threads
• New Labels settings page replaced the old Labels page in the sidebar
• Added “View” option to send toast (and shortcut support for v) to re-open pop-out window after sending a message

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved iOS app startup time
• Push notifications now automatically dismiss upon opening the iOS app
• Nudged app toasts to prevent covering the snooze picker on iOS
• Moved toast placement further left on web for easier account switching
• Threads automatically close after blocking a sender
• Fixed bugs causing “OR” saved searches to break on web
• Notification mute menu moved to Notifications settings page on web & Android

Explain with AI: Instantly understand everything by highlighting message text and clicking "Explain" for an in-place explanation of any concept or word.

🚢 New features

• Prompt AI with smart commands (⌘ k / ctrl k) to help you better understand your email
• Explore new Firewall, Bundles, and Search settings pages to fine-tune your inbox
• “Mark as unread” now available for threads on iOS

⚙️ Product changes

• Pinned section persists activity indicator for unread threads
• Favorite custom searches to permanently add them to your sidebar for easy access

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Unified message padding and alignment for better readability
• Improved loading performance on iOS
• Resolved flickering “offline” toast on iOS when opening the app
• Fixed an issue where the reply input would sometimes not display correctly on iOS

Calendar invites: Respond to calendar invites directly in the app — no more switching tabs between your calendar and email. Try it out on desktop to streamline your scheduling process.

🚢 New features

• Quickly create calendar events, summarize emails or links, and much more with custom Shortwave.ai bots
• “Mark as unread” now available on web & Android
• Add multiple accounts on Android and switch between them in-app
• Sharing buttons on web let you invite contacts to try Shortwave

⚙️ Product changes

• Command palette now supports thread actions for open threads

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved push notification speed on web & iOS
• Fixed instances of overflowing text on web
• Fixed Android app getting stuck on the “Loading…” screen

Sent with Shortwave: If you enjoy using Shortwave, you can let the world know by including “Sent with Shortwave” at the bottom of your messages. You can configure this from Settings > My account to append the tagline to your signature and help spread the love.

⚙️ Product changes

• → (right arrow) shortcut no longer focuses compose box
• New confirmation toasts shown after creating auto-apply rules for labels
• Refreshed the design of audience dividers for easier scanning

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Improved padding in several areas across the app
• Blocking a sender and send & done shortcut now auto-advances triage
• Fixed ordering display for scheduled send and snoozed threads
• Fixed a bug where audience header menus overflowed in full screen mode
• Ensured thread panes no longer unexpectedly close when interacting with other modals
• Additional improvements made to Android back button behavior

Readability improvements: Shortwave’s app typography has been completely overhauled for enhanced readability across devices and platforms. Fonts, text sizes, colors, and letter spacing are now optimized for easier email reading and writing.

🚢 New features

• View your signature while composing a message
• Check who label auto-apply rules affect before applying
• Manually dismiss toasts

⚙️ Product changes

• Android back button behavior updated to move hierarchically
• Added a shortcut cmd shift → to open a thread in fullscreen
• Redesigned inbox section headers for clarity
• Redesigned confirmation dialogs on iOS
• Removed inbox dividers to reduce visual clutter
• Switching accounts now always brings you back to the inbox

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Updated tooltips for sender & label settings
• Pressing k no longer focuses the search input when navigating through items
• “Remove formatting” now works on all compose styles instead of just inline styles
• Fixed several auto-advance and focus bugs in the Inbox and other thread lists
• Removed scheduled send threads from appearing on the Done page
• Fixed issue with block dialog sometimes showing "undefined" on iOS

Block and unsubscribe: Protect your inbox against unwanted emails by blocking junk senders and unsubscribing from noisy marketing promos in just one click. Next time you get a phishing email trying to steal your data, take three seconds to block the sender and keep your inbox permanently cleaner going forward. Read more about how it works on our blog.

🚢 New features

• Indicator to show when tracking pixels are blocked in emails
• "Add note" + "Unbundle" included as actions via the bundle menu
• Delivery schedule settings available for individual email addresses, mailing lists, and channels

⚙️ Product changes

• Unified keyboard and mouse focus in dropdown menus
• Contact suggestions in search are now prioritized by recency and frequency
• Smart labels no longer auto-apply by default

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Added forward option to BCC reply blocker
• Added a button for message actions on Android and mobile PWA, fixing instances where invisible hover actions could accidentally get pressed
• Fixed bundle settings bug that caused some built-in labels to unbundle
• Fixed custom snooze picker bug on small iOS devices
• Fixed a bug where links and attachments did not open on iOS
• Improved swipe animation speed on iOS
• Improved long Smart Summary support and scrolling on mobile PWA screens

Inbox redesign: Shortwave's new inbox helps you make the most of your screen at any size using a multi-pane layout. Threads and bundles will now be opened alongside your main inbox when your window has room.

The new inbox also brings dozens of other improvements, both large and small! A new auto-advance mode lets you triage your entire inbox even faster. We've also redesigned our thread UI to be simpler and more intuitive, including more clearly identifying who received each email.

🚢 New features

• Smart Summaries: Harness the power of AI to condense any email into just a few digestible sentences in seconds — read more here

⚙️ Product changes

• Reorganized and updated support documentation
• Android app now has a panel-based inbox that feels better on small screens
• Made login flow faster by allowing you to sign in and grant permissions in one step instead of two
• Redesigned label application process to give you more control over auto-apply and auto-remove rule creation

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed crashing bug when trying to display a private channel hover card
• Updated icon for "Labels" tab on iOS to be consistent with web
• Fixed back button behavior in Android to stop closing the app

Scheduled send: Scheduled send lets you set and forget: write a message, set a send time, and then move on to your next task. You can now schedule messages on web, as well as view pending messages from both web and iOS.

🚢 New features

• Our new command palette — opened using Cmd k — makes it simple to navigate across the app without using your mouse

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed a rare issue which caused the inbox to temporarily get out of sync
• Fixed a bug that caused snooze natural language suggestions to overflow the menu
• Fixed a bug causing CC'd recipients to not be included in recipient counts
• Fixed an icon alignment issue in the label picker

Search: Bring your search game to the next level with powerful new updates. Get better suggestions and immediate visual feedback regarding your queries with autocomplete and highlighting. New search terms and operators give you even more control to help you find what you're looking for.

🚢 New features

• Ability to print messages from Shortwave via the message level … dropdown menu
• Ability to add non-image file attachments on iOS
• Undo send has been graduated from an experiment and is now enabled for all Shortwave users

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Multiple dark mode improvements were rolled out, providing a better experience for emails from major senders like AirBnB and GrubHub
• Improved handling of whitespace in signatures
• Fixed a bug causing emojis in signatures to display extra large
• Fixed a bug where bundling was broken for snoozed threads when they reappeared in the inbox
• Fixed a bug where closed time sections would incorrectly treat scheduled threads as unsnoozed
• Fixed a regression where clicking the inbox icon didn't close the selected thread or bundle
• Fixed a regression where renooze no longer appeared as a default in the snooze picker list

2022 was a busy year for Shortwave: In the past year, our team of 13 has launched 101 features, made 754 improvements and merged 3,891 PRs. It's been less than one year since we launched, and we're just getting started.

Read all about what we did in 2022, and check out our past two weeks of improvements below.

⚙️ Product changes

• Ability to reply directly to a specific message and / or sender in a thread with improved branching behavior and UI
• Separated built-in and custom labels on the Labels page for improved navigability
• Separated built-in and custom labels in the label picker to make label selection frictionless

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed hover actions on 2-in-1 devices
• Fixed a hover action bug on Android devices where threads would unintentionally pin
• Fixed todo bundle preview text color that was incorrect on mobile PWA
• Added dynamic "Loading..." screen text for large inboxes that take longer to load

Delivery Schedules: Bundle your emails by label and set a delivery schedule to control when they enter your inbox. By deferring non-urgent groups of related threads, you can limit distractions and context-switching in your inbox to focus on what matters.

🚢 New features

• Added ability to configure bundle settings for senders, channels, and mailing lists
• Updated the help center with new documentation and methodology on how to best use Shortwave

⚙️ Product changes

• Revamped smart snooze time picker UI

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Ported NL input to mobile for smart snooze suggestions
• Fixed a bug which caused push notifications to be sent while in Do Not Disturb mode
• Fixed a bug where clicking to focus the search bar closed an open thread or bundle
• Fixed a bug where swipe settings would sometimes reset on iOS
• Updated iOS swipe settings image to include delete

Improved search: The search bar has been redesigned to make finding emails faster and more intuitive. You can now search for contacts, groups, labels, and mailing lists. Improved headers on search pages provide easy access to additional filters, settings, and compose.

🚢 New features

• Added sent, drafts, spam, and trash pages to the updated sidebar on web
• Updated navigation menu to include sent, drafts, favorites, and labels on iOS
• Added Forums label
• Added a "Last used" option to the smart snooze suggestions
• Shortwave's skip inbox filters now sync back to Gmail

⚙️ Product changes

• Removed conversations from the sidebar for clearer navigation
• Brought iOS search up to parity with web, supporting search for contacts, labels, and channels
• Added ability to have multiple Gmail category labels per thread

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed a bug where links to copied threads were invalid on iOS
• Updated Cmd + Shift + c keyboard shortcut to focus the CC: field instead of TO:
• Cleaned up label search results by hiding the repeated label in the thread previews
• Removed the bundling label in thread previews inside the open bundle for more scannable bundles

Delete: Delete and bulk delete are now top level actions in Shortwave, and you can swipe to delete on iOS.

🚢 New features

• Natural language (e.g. "2 hr" or "next week") can now be used to snooze threads on iOS
• Set labels, senders, channels and mailing lists to skip your inbox
• Stay up to date on new features in Shortwave with in-app feature announcements

⚙️ Product changes

• Threads now use the last message in the thread as preview text instead of the last unread message
• Labels are now offered as suggestions in the "Add favorite" sidebar flow

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Highlighting text in the first message of a subject-only thread prompts quote menu to appear on hover
• Fixed push notifications for unsnoozed threads sometimes not sending
• Fixed overlapping header and footer elements when viewing the app in mobile Safari or after being added to the iOS home screen

Full Screen Compose: New message compose is now a full screen experience, delivering more focus when you need it.
Faster Search: We just shipped backend improvements making search 4x faster!

🚢 New features

• Newsletter built-in label now automatically applies to known newsletter senders
• Ability to view and manage magic label senders for all labels
• Click-to-copy subject lines
• Link to changelog added in-app from help menu (?)
• Launched as an official integration in Shift

⚙️ Product changes

• The top-most thread on every screen is now focused by default
• After sending a message, the thread is focused rather than the compose box
• Visual styling changes to the inbox including removing the "wave", and changing the color of the top bar in dark mode
• Hover cards include the gear icon to open the settings dialog

🐛 Fixes & improvements

• Fixed issue with built-in labels sometimes not being auto-removed
• Fixed safe areas on the iOS mobile web app so it looks correct on all iOS devices, including iPad
• All inbox items now properly have drag handles