Shortwave puts AI first. Dodosend puts your keys first.

Shortwave builds your inbox around an AI assistant. Dodosend builds it around your keyboard, with AI in a panel you open when you want it. Both are for Gmail. Here’s how they compare, and who each one is for.

Get the desktop appDownload

Free for one Gmail mailbox, on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

At a glance

Shortwave’s details come from its own site, checked in November 2026.

	Dodosend	Shortwave
Price	Free for one Gmail mailbox; the Multi-mailbox plan, monthly or yearly, adds more mailboxes and more AI	Pro $18, Business $30, Premier $45 or Max $120 per seat a month, after a 14-day trial
Free plan	Yes: one Gmail mailbox, with every feature	Yes, with limited AI, 90 days of search history and “Sent with Shortwave” on your mail
Desktop apps	macOS 12+, Windows 10+, Linux (AppImage, .deb, .rpm)	macOS and Windows; a web app elsewhere
Phone and web	Not yet: desktop only	iPhone, Android and web
Email accounts	Gmail and Google Workspace	Gmail and Google Workspace
Keyboard	A key for every action, and a ⌘K / Ctrl+K palette that reads “remind me fri 10”	Keyboard shortcuts
AI	Ask AI, off until you turn it on: it searches and reads your mail to answer, drafts replies you send yourself, and proposes changes you approve. Search also finds a mail from what you remember of it. No AI keeps your mail or learns from it	The center of the app: an assistant that searches, summarizes and drafts across your mail
Availability	Open beta: download it and sign in with Google	Open to everyone

Something here out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

Try the keys instead

Move, star, archive and undo, one key each, with no AI in the way. Try it on sample mail.

Interactive demo. A hands-on look at how it works: use your keyboard or mouse, and the guide shows you what to do. The mail is made up.

Dodosend

Inbox

3 unread

Maya Chen

10 threads

Step 1 of 4

Press ↓ to move to the next thread.Tap “Show me” to move to the next thread.

Move, star and archive from the keyboard. Nothing is final: undo brings it back.

Which one is for you

Pick Dodosend if…

You want to drive, not delegate
In Dodosend every action is a key and every command is one box away. Ask AI can draft a reply, but you send it, and it changes nothing until you approve it.
You pay for your email yourself
Dodosend is free for one Gmail mailbox, with every feature and nothing added to your mail. Shortwave’s free plan limits its AI and signs your mail “Sent with Shortwave”, and its paid plans are priced per seat.
You’re on Linux
Dodosend has a Linux desktop build, as an AppImage, a .deb and an .rpm. Shortwave’s desktop apps are for Mac and Windows.
You like reminders you can type
“Remind me fri 10” in the palette does what it says, and ⌘⇧H brings a thread back only if nobody replies.

Pick Shortwave if…

You want AI at the center
Shortwave is built around its assistant, which searches, summarizes and drafts across your mail. In Dodosend, Ask AI is a panel beside your mail, with a few questions a day on the Free plan.
You triage on your phone
Shortwave has iPhone, Android and web apps. Dodosend is a desktop app; on your phone you’d still use Gmail.
You want a settled app
Dodosend is still in beta: it changes often, and you may hit a rough edge. If you’d rather not, Shortwave is the steadier choice.

Switching from Shortwave

Your mail stays in Gmail, so there’s nothing to move: sign in to Dodosend with Google and your threads, labels and drafts are there. What Shortwave’s AI made for you, like summaries, stays in Shortwave.

Questions

Does Dodosend use AI?

Yes, when you ask it. Ask AI answers questions about your mail: it searches and reads your mail to answer, writes drafts that you send yourself, and proposes changes that happen only after you approve them. It stays off until you turn it on, and it can’t send mail or delete it permanently. Search uses AI too. Closest mail finds a mail from what you remember of it: Voyage AI makes embeddings of your messages for fast semantic search, and they stay on your computer. A search typed as a sentence and opened as a tab is turned into Gmail’s search terms by an OpenAI model. No AI keeps your mail or learns from it.

Is Dodosend free?

Yes, for one Gmail mailbox, with every feature: the command palette, reminders, scheduled send, the calendar, and a few Ask AI questions a day. The Multi-mailbox plan, billed monthly or yearly, connects more mailboxes and gives more AI.

Is there Shortwave for Linux?

Shortwave’s desktop apps are for macOS and Windows, with a web app for everything else. Dodosend has a Linux desktop build for x86_64.

Can I try both?

Yes. Both work on top of your Gmail account, so you can go back and forth without moving anything.

Try it on your own inbox

Your Gmail, your keys, no card. Your mail stays on your computer, and Google lets you revoke access anytime.