ProtonMail desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux is in development
Proton has revealed its roadmap for the year 2022, to share its plans with users. It confirms that a ProtonMail desktop app is coming in the future.
The privacy-centric email service, has gained popularity over the years, but has lacked a proper standalone mail client. It can either be used directly from your browser, or as a PWA (Progressive Web APP) in Chromium-based browsers, or by using Proton Bridge in a third-party program like Thunderbird or Outlook. That feature, sadly, is locked behind a paywall, which makes it an exclusive benefit for premium users. There is an open source, unofficial client called ElectronMail which you can use to access your inbox on your computer, without the need of other apps or Bridge.
Proton desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux
The official Proton desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, will be based on Electron. The company states that the program is still in the early stages of development, which explains why it did not reveal screenshots of the software. An ETA for the app's release date has not been provided either.
Proton Drive free plan to be announced next week
Proton Drive is a secure cloud storage service that the company offers for its premium users. Though it debuted in late 2020, it is still in beta. According to the roadmap published at its blog, a Proton Drive free plan will be introduced next week. The beta test offers 500MB of free space, so it is possible the new plan will follow suit.
And just like the mail client, a Proton Drive app for Windows, iOS and Android is also being worked on, and is set to be released later this year. A macOS client for Drive is also in development, but it is not expected to be read until the end of 2022. The Drive apps will also bring some improvements to the core user experience, such as managing files and folders, viewing images, PDFs and video clips directly, along with the ability to sync local files and folders with the cloud with the built-in end-to-end encryption that the service is known for.
ProtonVPN extension for Firefox and Chrome
The roadmap outlines plans for ProtonVPN, which will gain support for more services, and offer, servers in more countries, and faster BitTorrent support with port forwarding. In addition to compatibility with WireGuard clients and routers, the company aims to reduce VPN detection and captchas on sites by offering better IP reputation. A ProtonVPN extension for Firefox and Chrome will be revealed this year, which should be welcome news for those who rely on the service for unblocking websites.
The Switzerland-based company is also testing a Proton Calendar iOS app internally, it will be available as part of a limited beta test this spring.
The big question is, will the ProtonMail desktop app be available for users in the free tier? Hopefully it will be free, while Proton Bridge for other programs, will remain a premium feature. It could be an interesting way to get new users on board, especially as a single account can be used for Mail, VPN, Calendar and Drive.
Do you prefer to access your mail via web browsers or a standalone program?
Looks like it will be Electron garbage. What’s the point then? Might as well use a browser to access it.
In which case it will be bloatware crap.
Tesonet, here I come!
https://www.docdroid.net/kOP3JAh/tesonet-web-of-lies-pdf
Have fun with the data mining operation.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn_and_tesonet/
@ironheartdesinfo
“Yeah, we shared an office address, our CEO, and they signed our applications and all, but we are totally not the same company. I swear by my honor as an employee!”
LOL.
#ironheartrealinfo
Seems fishy.
https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1036353291662360577
https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/9bfqt9/lawsuit_names_nordvpn_tesonet_in_proxy_data/
If Iron Heart says something you better believe it. Otherwise you’re the one spreading conspiracy. So if he says Proton is involved with Tesonet, based on a joke of a document/pdf believe it.
@Yash
The lengths you go to in order to dance to their tune, just because you gave them money years ago, is pretty hilarious. I mean, their excuses aren’t even good for bedtime hour for a five year old.
1. Lithuania is a EU member state, there is freedom of travel (both persons AND goods) in the EU. I live in another EU member state, but if I wanted to move my ass to Lithuania or start a business there, I could do that no problem. Yet Proton Technologies claims that Lithuania supposedly has this racist, nationalist law that supposedly requires them to pick a Lithuanian citizen as CEO, as otherwise they couldn’t do business there. :………D And let’s suppose that nonsense were actually true, then out of all possible Lithuanians, they had to pick the guy who is CEO of that big ass data mining operation. :……….D
2. They admitted that Tesonet and them occupy the same building. They claim that 50+ companies are housed there, but let me ask you: How likely is it that the data mining company and Proton Technologies are occupying the very same building, with the same CEO nonetheless? Was there no other possible address? What a coincidence, :………..D.
3. They didn’t even dispute that their applications were signed by Tesonet, as they couldn’t undo this or hide it from the public quickly (they did this with the above two, thank god web archive exists). They claim that this was part of the data mining operation helping them to get started… I suppose because there was no other possibe certificate authority, including self-signing (But wait, they actually did this, didn’t hey? :………D).
As I said, the excuses publicized by their own employees are not even good enough for bedtime hour of a five year old, and that they tried to hide all this info at warp speed once the allegations came up tells you all you need to know, except when you have pumped money into them I guess, like you admittedly did, @Yash…
PS: I don’t care whether or not PIA ratted them out via a “smear campaign”. I don’t trust PIA as a business either. But it’s good for us that these untrustworthy business are not friends with one another, obviously.
First to make this clear – I’ve never spent money on any Proton services. Infact I’ve never spent money for even ProtonMail, let alone ProtonVPN. In the past I’ve said lot of stupid things, though some good ones too, so yeah I’ve never done it.
Fun fact – I’ve never paid for a VPN service yet, and that doesn’t mean I’m a freeloader and uses free services. I only see two use cases for VPN – Streaming services and P2P. Fortunately I don’t need to do any of those coz I’m not much into P2P, and I only use streaming services for live sports, and I don’t have to use VPN for that.
And second, actually I consider emails to be insecure. Plus as far as service goes, ProtonMail is behind Tutanota. So no Proton whatsoever.
But that document you’ve shared many times is – it looks as though a drawing made by teenager. Looks goofy. That’s all.
I use Interlink Mail and News. authored by the infamous Matty Tobin. It appears to be basically an updated standalone version of the Seamonkey mail client. It works well, though it hasn’t been updated in awhile. I hope it has a future.
I love the emClient, well let me rephrase that, i loved version 5x of the emClient. Since then every version looks like Windows 10. The UI is hard coded like Microsoft Office, and doesn’t conform to the Windows UI of 7 and 8x very well. Frustrating!
I’ve tried the CTemplar Electron app and it’s awful!
What’s more interesting to me is who’s gonna be the next DDG in the “privacy” mail venue? Proton or Tutanota?
By the time you use Windows 11 and all the other bloated crap lazy developers make these days, you will need 128GB of RAM.
Nice article, good information provided by the way. Thanks @Ashwin for the article! :]
Why would people keep promoting protonmail?
1. The company shouldn’t be trusted after they gave a person’s data to government, plus there were other cases that made the company not trustable, even the way supposedly their encryption is all about, I mean even Nadim Kobeissi said it that mathematically they didn’t provide e2ee.
2. Email system is insecure by default! and that’s what people have to understand, there is no ‘secure email’, of course, if you use marketing talk like ‘encryption’ and ‘secure’ together, people will fall in the lie about it, but even if true, protonmail encryption would only work if you email to another prontonmail account. What do you think happens when you have to send it to the popular ones like gmail? the encryption is gone obviously. so what benefits do you have by using Prontonmail? well, since I doubt many people use this service anyway then not much since I am sure you will be emailing to different people.
3. The way Email works is the same reason why promoting Matrix is just terrible for anything imaginable, your messages will exist in multiple servers and you won’t have control to delete them. It’s even worst than centralized server systems because at least you know what you are getting into, and sometimes they give you the way to delete it.
Imagine all the different domains you can email to, supports, companies, anyone, not just gmail or outlook, you don’t know what will happen to your information when you send an email.
Prontonmail is the perfect example of a company that loves making $$ with the fakery privacy online is (even privacy offline is hard to have these days, so imagine online) I find it hard to understand how people can trust their files, their traffic and their emails with a company like this. People fall for anything, the same people who are complaining today about Mozilla or Microsoft telemetry or Google ‘stealing my data’ or Apple using the same marketing talk ‘we care about your privacy’, or how awful is that Audacity wanted to add some telemetry system in their software, etc. They are the same people who probably praise these fishy companies that use “encryption” as a slogan when they don’t even know if it’s true or not, or how it wouldn’t even matter because emails by default were not meant for anything secured.
Yes, normally email is and have been sent between email providers totally unencrypted, but when you send email from or to between protonmail and gmail, including a few other email providers, the transfer is encrypted, they are using a common encryption for that, although it’s still not so common.
@Neo-anon+WatchDog
First off, proton was handed a warrant by a swiss court to hand over logs or begin logging of a certain user. This was a legitimate order by a swiss court, and even proton has mentioned in their policy that they will comply with any legitimate warrant issued out of switzerland. Its either comply, or shutdown operations to avoid compliance. Refusal to do either will be excessive fines and/or imprisonment. And no company will go to jail to protect 1, or few users.
And yes, email system is insecure. Its was never designed woth securoty in mind. The only fix, is to create a new system woth open source, secure encryption by default and hope all places eventually adopt it.
I switched to proton, not to be anonyamous but for more privacy and security than gmail. A company who is more transparent, open-source verifiable apps. Proton to proton is yes encrypted, but as you said outside recipients are not. Unless, you trigger manual pgp encryption though will draw the confusion of pgp to the recipient which sort of erases point of proton for simplicity.
How can you trust a provider like gmail, from a known company to spy on you?
As i use it, I am still careful at what its used for. i don’t send things too sensotove like credit card info, ssn, or personal photos/videos I wouldn’t want in the wrong hands.
As most people need email for basic things online, i refuse to use a well know provider who steals data like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, aol…
500 MB their free plan… no thanks, let goooogllleee spy on me and give me 15 GB for free lol.
Using ProtonVPN, ProtonMail, ProtonCalendar and ProtonDrive (Beta) for a couple of years and I’m highly satisfied with these unique and matchless services.
This is great news!
> Do you prefer to access your mail via web browsers or a standalone program?
I prefer, from experience, a stand-alone program email client (which allows centralized management of all diverse accounts).
In short, it’s Thunderbird.
However, since Thunderbird is not available on the iPad (iOS), On the iPad (iOS), I use it different Apple Mail, and Tutanota.
I hope to see a truly secure (end-to-end encryption, open source program, proper third party auditing) stand-alone program email client available on iOS.
Cannot trust them, if they sold their clients.
How can we think that this is safe.
ProtonMail never “sold” their clients
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/proton-wins-appeal-in-swiss-court-over-surveillance-laws/47052196
I don’t trust website with .ch
No problem. For you there are .cn, .kp and .ru domains.
I an see authors permanently ignore news from Linux world.
Nobody mentioned about new kernel – Linux 5.17
Nobody mentioned about GNOME 17.
We can see here only news about Windows, about less meaning features.
Great approach.
Nobody care about Linux as it should be.
That’s because the vast majority of computer users couldn’t give two hoots about a new Linux kernel version. The whole Linux experience is niche beyond belief: fragmented, rife with petty vendettas, and the need for a CISSP just to be able to maintain your installation.
There already is a desktop app that lets you get your proton mail, calendar, etc. Rhymes with wowzer.
How can you practically use this, if you can not do a search in your emails?
Or am I wrong?
What is it browser… bowser, snowzer, towzer, I give up…
If you want private, secure email, then encrypt it yourself and use any provider you want to. Privacy on the Internet is an illusion (delusion), so any company selling it will also have caveats for all kinds of this and that (legal requirements). Worry more about spam and phishing than “privacy” if you want a better email experience.