Shortwave alternative?
Meet Hey Help.

If you’re on the hunt for a smart, efficient alternative to Shortwave, we’d love to introduce you to Hey Help — a brand-new AI assistant purpose-built for Gmail.

Unlike broader assistant platforms, Hey Help is laser-focused on optimizing your Gmail inbox — helping you take back control of email clutter, speed up responses, and stay on top of follow-ups, all while you sleep.

Let’s just say we know our way around Gmail.

We’ve spent the last six years building productivity tools for Gmail at DragApp — a shared inbox and workflow platform used by over 200,000 users.

We’ve worked deep inside the Gmail ecosystem, solving pain points for teams and individuals alike. Now, we’re using everything we’ve learned to create a best-in-class AI assistant inside Gmail.

Let’s break it down:

✨ You don’t have to leave Gmail

Shortwave replaces your Gmail interface with its own app, which looks and behaves more like a messaging platform than traditional email.

For long-time Gmail users, especially executives and teams who’ve built muscle memory around Gmail’s UI, this shift can be disruptive.

Hey Help doesn’t require any of that. It runs within your Gmail account. You get powerful AI support without ever leaving the familiar Gmail environment.

🎯 Gmail features stay intact

Shortwave strips away or alters core Gmail features, like filters, custom labels, and stars.

If your workflows rely on Gmail’s built-in features or filters to sort incoming emails, Shortwave forces you to rebuild or give them up entirely.

Hey Help keeps Gmail’s full functionality intact. You still have access to labels, filters, stars, snoozing, and more, while layering powerful AI capabilities on top.

⚙️ Drafts stay in sync

Shortwave stores your email drafts inside its own system, separate from Gmail’s native Drafts folder. That means you might write something in Shortwave, but it won’t show up in Gmail, or vice versa.

This disconnect is a major issue for teams that collaborate across platforms or use shared inboxes.

Hey Help works directly with Gmail Drafts, ensuring 100% real-time sync.

🖇️ Extensions and integrations still work

Shortwave runs in a separate environment, meaning any Chrome extensions or third-party Gmail tools (eg. CRM plugins, scheduling assistants) either don’t work or require separate integrations.

For businesses that rely on a tailored Gmail setup, this can mean starting from scratch.

Hey Help preserves all your existing integrations and extensions. Because it runs inside Gmail, your tools continue working as usual.

✂️ No migration, no disruption

Shortwave requires a full migration. Teams must be onboarded to a new tool, with data moved over, user training completed, and workflows rebuilt.

Hey Help eliminates that overhead. There’s no migration process, no data transfer, and no retraining. It’s fast, easy, and non-disruptive.

We’re currently inviting early users to help test Hey Help in private beta. If you’re a Gmail power user, freelancer, founder, or just someone who’s overwhelmed by email — we’d love to have you onboard.

This is your chance to be part of something new — and help shape a tool designed for people like you.

Get early access now 👇🏼.