nowfound

Life & fun · August 8, 2014

SG

Shortwhale – Get fewer, shorter, and better emails

Dan Ariely and I are looking for ways to help people with high email load. One idea was Shortwhale, which we've tested for a few months now. The idea is super simple: It's a place to tell people how you prefer email and it offers a simple contact form that adds the necessary structure to email. Although technically trivial, it works extremely well for Dan. We have ideas on how to expand this but first we'd like to know if someone else might find this useful too (we know that this is only a solution for people who get tons of (unsolicited) email). Underlying to all of this is the idea to put…

Shortwhale – Get fewer, shorter, and better emails launched on August 8, 2014 with 40 votes, #1,072 of 2,208 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches.

Alternatives

In plain words

Shortwhale is a service that helps people overwhelmed by email by providing a customizable profile where they can specify their email preferences and a structured contact form for senders to use. The tool adds constraints to incoming emails through dropdown selections and multiple-choice questions, reducing both email volume and the cognitive load of reading and responding. It is designed for people who receive high volumes of unsolicited email and want to streamline communication while making it easier for senders to craft relevant messages.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Dan Ariely and I are looking for ways to help people with high email load. One idea was Shortwhale, which we've tested for a few months now. The idea is super simple: It's a place to tell people how you prefer email and it offers a simple contact form that adds the necessary structure to email. Although technically…

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • Shortwave2022 · shortwave.com · ▲299

    Email smarter & faster with a reinvented Gmail experience

  • Shortwave: Enjoy Your Inbox2022 · shortwave.com · ▲224

    I’m thrilled to finally be able to show everyone what we’ve been working on for the last 2 years. We’re re-inventing the email experience to help you email smarter and faster, so you can get more done, and maybe even actually enjoy your inbox. When we launched Firebase here 10 years ago, HN was tough but fair, and I expect no less this time around! I hope you’ll check out what we’ve built and share your feedback. I’ll be around here all day and am happy to answer any questions. Let us know what you think!

  • Mailmeteor2019 · mailmeteor.com · ▲567

    Send hundreds of personalized emails with Gmail.

  • Shortwhale2014 · ▲85

    Stop drowning in email

  • Mailshake2017 · mailshake.com · ▲603

    A simple and easy to use solution for cold emails

  • Say Less2020 · sayless.email · ▲269

    Write shorter, more effective emails with AI

More life & fun this month

the category →

Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

Launched alongside, August 2014

the whole month →