{"id":10429,"date":"2022-03-02T13:10:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T13:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1381679"},"modified":"2022-03-02T13:10:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T13:10:55","slug":"how-google-inbox-died-and-this-company-resurrected-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10429","title":{"rendered":"How Google Inbox died\u2026 and this company resurrected it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Google Inbox was one of those products that a corner of the internet loved furiously \u2014 including me. So, when the company announced it was being discontinued in 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/goolge-killing-inbox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I was mad as hell<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a company named <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortwave.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Shortwave<\/a>, formed by ex-Google employees, is trying to bring it back. Before we talk about what they\u2019re trying to do, let\u2019s take a trip down memory lane.<\/p>\n<h2>Why was Inbox killed?<\/h2>\n<p>Inbox was great at what it did: streamlining emails.<\/p>\n<p>This included best-in-class categorization, intuitive email pinning, a clean interface, and features like bundles that grouped messages from one sender. While <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/topic\/google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google<\/a> brought some of these features to the main app, it just isn\u2019t as good as Inbox.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1281814 js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-796x316.png\" alt=\"What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days\" width=\"796\" height=\"316\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-280x111.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-540x214.png 540w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-270x107.png 270w\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2022%2F03%2F02%2Fgoogle-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days.\" data-title=\"Share What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"><\/i><\/a>What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days.<\/figcaption><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1281814\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-796x316.png\" alt=\"What Google Inbox looked like in its glory days\" width=\"796\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-280x111.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-540x214.png 540w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/03\/Screenshot-2019-02-05-at-2.18.55-PM-796x316-270x107.png 270w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>Andrew Lee, Shortwave\u2019s CEO and co-founder of developer platform <a href=\"https:\/\/firebase.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Firebase<\/a>, told me that a ton of people loved Inbox. After he left Google in 2017, he talked to some folks at the company about the product.<\/p>\n<p>According to some of them, Inbox had more than 10 million monthly active users \u2014 most of them paying G Suite users and knowledge workers.<\/p>\n<p>Google even considered changing the UI of <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/topic\/gmail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gmail<\/a> to Inbox, but it was too risky, as millions of users were already familiar with the classic design. So it decided to port some features across, and discontinue Inbox. The company just didn\u2019t want the hassle of maintaining two Gmail products.<\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace, buddy. You\u2019re gone, but not forgotten.<\/p>\n<h2>Birth of Shortwave<\/h2>\n<p>Lee took a break after leaving Google, and searched for something new. After looking at protests in Hong Kong, and censorship on WeChat, he came to the conclusion that email remained one of the most effective \u2014 and hard to disrupt \u2014 ways of communicating.<\/p>\n<p>He wanted to make emails like chat messages. That\u2019s when he remembered Inbox and its interface. And, in 2020, he hired some people who worked on the product to start Shortwave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe quickly built a prototype\u201d, he told me, \u201cand tested the workflow heavily. Then last year, we started expanding the test to friends, family, and some other users under a closed beta.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Filling it with features<\/h2>\n<p>If you head to the <a href=\"http:\/\/shortwave.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Shortwave<\/a> website and start using it, you\u2019ll see its resemblance with Inbox immediately. The team has already rolled out pinned messages, keyboard shortcuts, categories (like updates, promotion, forums, calendar, and social), and my beloved bundles.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1381681 size-featured_img js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-796x401.png\" alt=\"Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta inbox.\" width=\"796\" height=\"401\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-796x401.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-280x141.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-268x135.png 268w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-536x270.png 536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-1536x774.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-1592x803.png 1592w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673.png 1924w\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2022%2F03%2F02%2Fgoogle-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: The Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta Inbox.\" data-title=\"Share The Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta Inbox. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share The Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta Inbox. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"><\/i><\/a>The Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta Inbox.<\/figcaption><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1381681 size-featured_img\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-796x401.png\" alt=\"Categories feature in Shortwave is straight outta inbox.\" width=\"796\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-796x401.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-280x141.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-268x135.png 268w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-536x270.png 536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-1536x774.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673-1592x803.png 1592w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/categories-1-e1646223393673.png 1924w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>But that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<p>The company wants to be the primary email client for small businesses and knowledge workers. One feature that highlights this goal is Workspaces, where you can create Google Groups-like channels for specific conversations by different workgroups.<\/p>\n<p>Lee said that Shortwave also wanted to reduce the time of conversations between teammates. So if all of your colleagues are using the app, you get emails from them \u2014 just like you get messages on Slack or Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n<p>Another problem Shortwave has solved involves forwarded emails.<\/p>\n<p>When you loop in someone mid-conversation in Gmail, the format is almost unreadable, and attached files are lost. Shortwave has tried to mitigate this by adopting a chat-style summary of the email trail, meaning there are no loose ends.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1381682 js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-796x471.png\" alt=\"The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way\" width=\"796\" height=\"471\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-796x471.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-280x166.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-228x135.png 228w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-457x270.png 457w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-1536x908.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-1592x942.png 1592w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853.png 1980w\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2022%2F03%2F02%2Fgoogle-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way.\" data-title=\"Share The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"><\/i><\/a>The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way.<\/figcaption><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1381682\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-796x471.png\" alt=\"The thread history feature formats previous emails in a readable way\" width=\"796\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-796x471.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-280x166.png 280w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-228x135.png 228w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-457x270.png 457w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-1536x908.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853-1592x942.png 1592w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/sharing-e1646223489853.png 1980w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p>In my short time using Shortwave, my favorite feature was the ability to make emails skip the inbox when it\u2019s sent by a specific person. As you can see in the screenshot below, you can click on any sender\u2019s profile and define this quickly.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1381688 js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM.png\" alt=\"You can set filters of receiving messages per sender.\" width=\"536\" height=\"458\" sizes=\"(max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM.png 536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-246x210.png 246w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-158x135.png 158w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-316x270.png 316w\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.thenextweb.com%2Fplugged%2F2022%2F03%2F02%2Fgoogle-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: You can set filters of receiving messages per sender.\" data-title=\"Share You can set filters of receiving messages per sender. on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share You can set filters of receiving messages per sender. on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"><\/i><\/a>You can set filters of receiving messages per sender.<\/figcaption><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1381688\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM.png\" alt=\"You can set filters of receiving messages per sender.\" width=\"536\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM.png 536w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-246x210.png 246w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-158x135.png 158w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/Screenshot-2022-03-02-at-4.40.04-PM-316x270.png 316w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<h2>The way ahead<\/h2>\n<p>Shortwave is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortwave.com\/pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">free to use<\/a>, and available on all platforms. But to make Workspaces with more than 10 people \u2014 and have unlimited search history \u2014 you need to shell out $9 per person each month.<\/p>\n<p>Lee knows exactly what he wants to achieve with Shortwave \u2014 and how to do it. Firstly, this involves giving paying customers everything they need. In the short term, this means building features like multiple profiles, notes, and reminders.<\/p>\n<p>But in the long term? Shortwave wants to be better than Inbox ever was \u2014 and with its own personality to boot.<\/p>\n<p>Inbox is dead, long live Shortwave.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/google-inbox-killed-shortwave-app-analysis\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google Inbox was one of those products that a corner of the internet loved furiously \u2014 including me. So, when the company announced it was being discontinued in 2019, I was mad&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}