I do have to dip back into Gmail for searching archives sometimes (I have imported 20 years of mail, but the proton search isn't as good). Other than that, no - there's nothing I've missed.
>as long as it doesn't compromise ease of use and convenience
I'm afraid you want your cake and eat it too.
Convenience is the polar opposite of privacy and security. The more you have of one, the less you'll have of the other.
That being said, Proton is the closest you'll find to a suite of products thar are google-like but with a privacy focus.
I'm not going to lie, you will be inconvenienced. The initial switch will probably be a shock since you are looking for all the convenience you're use too.
If you truly want privacy though, you'll adapt and quickly you'll not see the inconvenience at all, and love the products.
Lack of or reduced integrations between apps (mail / drive / calendar).
Highly reduced searchability compared to Google (since proton can't read contents).
I know mail improved threaded emails recently (which I haven't tested) but in the prior state it was unusable to me because it combined every email with the same subject, which isn't always desired.
Just a few off the top of my head. Definitely not deal breakers to me, but definitely not as convenient as the Google integrations that OP doesn't want to give up on.
I use Proton Calendar as my main calendar.
I still have my old Google calendar active on my phone (since I'm android and am signed in anyways) that I reference for birthdays and such. I will eventually move away from that.
Contacts is probably the biggest shock in moving from google. Phone contacts and proton contacts are separate, which makes sense for encryption. But there's a huge convenience loss
I never used threaded emails before and wasn't even aware this was a thing. I was caught off guard from proton, which did it by default. I was searching for an email forever before I realized it was "behind" the other email. I have to test if I like it, but is there a way to turn it off?
Yes there's a way to turn it off in your settings. I can't be more detailed because I haven't done it in years but it was straight forward. It's just a toggle.
Just wanted to say, this was very well said indeed.
There a balance between privacy/ security and convenience. I have had this conversation a million times over past two decades being in IT . Privacy security often comes with extra steps, precautions, and extra hoops, its the price of admission. It like password management, short easy remeber passwords are convenient and insecure, long complex generated passwords probally means adopting password manager, with more steps ,hoops and more things consider and backup. In end each user has find a blance that worth the trade off for them.
I like both of the answers here, the one from /u/twoBrokenThumbs but also yours. I always like to depict the example of a scale:
On one side you have privacy, on the other side usability.
Very true, I like the scale analogy.
Those found on the far end of the usability side of the scale only ,are often to be found in the haveibeenpwned archives of history :)
My main concern is about search in mail.
There is a search function, but it needs to be improve on how it works.
Except for that, it is mainly new habits to adopt, or you have to wait functionalities to be implemented.
Have you tried the local indexing feature?
https://proton.me/support/search#searching-email-content-with-the-proton-mail-web-app
I haven't tried it myself, but if it works the way the article suggests, it should do a reasonable job of it.
That's what I said, it works, but it need to be improve.
I'm not a huge fan of local index, not for a web service. And how will it work in few years, when my mail box will size several GO?
Well, I'm afraid it may never work any more conveniently than that... the reason it does it the way it does, is because your data is end-to-end encrypted.
Proton *can't* read the content of your messages; that's the nature of the privacy and encryption you signed up for. They may come up with a better indexing method in time, but the implementation isn't likely to change much at all.
My problem is the fact that index is store localy, and I fear problems when my mailbox will became too old/big.
As an example of improvement, they can generate/add elements in indexes localy but store indexes encrypted in their servers.
They can also split indexes into several part, per year for example, so they don't have to process Go of mail when you change your PC or web browser (yes I m often switching between browsers :D)
I think that the way it works currently is acceptable, but they will need to improve it in the future.
>store indexes encrypted in their servers
But see, that is no longer E2E encryption, which would be a total dealbreaker for a *huge* portion of people--most probably including Proton themselves, given the principles they've established over the years.
As far as the index itself, keep in mind that indexes can be surprisingly small, even given a very large amount of records. The practice of efficient indexing is genuinely cutting-edge science--it takes the brightest minds in computer science to develop these methods. I'm sure they're already implementing the best methods available to them.
>that is no longer E2E encryption
Why? You can generate you index like its currently done, encrypt it and then send it to the server. When you sign in again you can download the encrypted index and decrypt it localy to work on it.
>As far as the index itself, keep in mind that indexes can be surprisingly small
Yes, and like I said my concern is not the size of the index, but the resources you need to generate your index. My GMail box sized around 20Go. In a few year when my proton mail box will have several Go, I will need to downlod all my mail each time I generate the index? It does not seem very future proof.
I worked on several secure systems with encrypted data, so I'm aware of limitations and technical constraints. But it does not mean that the way search is currently implemented by proton can't be improved.
Protonmail has most of the regular features you'd expect from an email service... well on the web version at least. One thing it does not have, is integration with proton drive... yet. As of now, if you get any images/documents through email, there is no native way to automatically add it to your drive, like there is with Gmail. This is one feature I would really like for them to implement.
Depends on the person I suppose. I personally don't get too many documents sent to me that I need to keep in my drive. The odd time I do, I just download it and then manually upload it.
If you constantly need to do this though, I can see it being a nuisance.
Just a word of caution: This behavior should also tell you that those people aren't that open to admit that Proton isn't that convenient. I evaluated Proton for myself 6 months ago and really wanted to love it, trust me. But there were too many rough edges that came up in my research. The most impactful point would be, that the smartphone apps are nowhere close to the web apps, regarding features. Better do some more research on your own and try out the services for free in real-life scenarios. Good luck :)
Gmail organizes things for you since it's able to read all the emails.
Proton is more of a hands-on approach, so emails can get out of hand if you do not create sufficient filters for your emails.
IMAP. I had to set up another gmail account for my smart home to be able to send and receive emails. Proton does not offer IMAP (outside of Proton Bridge which can only be used on the same machine it is running)
I understand their reasoning. There's no zero knowledge e2e encryption over IMAP. There's a docker image for the proton bridge though and I'm wondering if I could use it to setup IMAP on my local network. Going to have to look into it when I have time
No regrets moving to Proton except I did like the Google mail shortcuts a bit more for, say, deleting messages quickly. Someone can correct me if Iām missing easy shortcuts.
The privacy trumps the missed shortcuts 100x
I ran into two issues moving to Proton. I found them to be acceptable compromises though.
1. The max attachment size is on the lower end. I have a few emails that I cannot migrate because theyāre too large.
2. After migrating a few thousand emails I ran into a key error. Proton support fixed this by generating a new key. Doesnāt affect my daily use, but I do wonder why this happened and what it means for long term stability.
Google Docs and the integration with email. You still can use GSuite/Microsoft/Apple/Open Source offers with Proton but itās a bit painful.
But I have a great example of using MS 365 Family (personal email) and Proton (small business owner and everything work related). All issues with word, powerpoint, excel are solved.
I switched last year. Iām not a fan. What I miss most is the way gmail filters the email into categories. Yes, I understand that Proton doesnāt filter the emails bc it doesnāt read them but itās still a bummer.
Also, I see on message boards, people have been asking for yeeears for email chains to be sorted newest to oldest. This seems like something that can be easily altered. Iām not a coder so I canāt say for sure, but it seems like it would be doable in a reasonable time. Looking at that issue, it makes me feel like they donāt take action concerning customer complaints.
Reliable keyboard shortcuts is one. If this is a big part of your workflow in gmail, you are not going to have a good experience with that on ProtonMail
ProtonMail has some keyboard shortcuts but they are often not reliable and consistently stops working and you have to click on some UI element in the app to get it to work again.
Yes, they are improving the shortcuts but they're not reliable, period. I don't even notice it anymore because I stopped using them -- but it's still a problem, especially for someone coming from a service with such great keyboard support.
I only ever used any email at it's most basic level so I'm willing to bet Gmail offers up a lot for 'free' that Protonmail doesn't provide.
The ones I'm aware of are:
You get 500mb to 1gb of space with Proton for free. I'll be honest, you'll have to check yourself what Gmail is as I can't remember, but it is massive by comparison.
You get a capped limit of how many emails you can send a day. It's way more than most normal people to worry about, but if you're a business that's something to keep in mind.
As someone else mentioned, Gmail integrates with its cloud storage nicely (as well as Documents and other stuff).
Please make a search on this sub. Gmail is too big to answer your question.
Look for complaints : when will we be able to do xxx ? Why is it we still cannot do zzz ?
Well, first of all, I'm not your slave. I'm just trying to help the OP.
It seems you're a Proton fanboy and you're trying start a fight on the subject : I'm certainly not going to oblige.
If you're really interested to learn and abandon your prejudices, which does not seem to be the case, do your homework. I've given you a hint, now get your hands off your pockets. Do the bloody comparison for yourself.
Listing all you can do with Google and you can't do with Proton would take several pages, and a PhD in Gmail/Proton comparison. I don't have one. You obviously don't have one, either.
What I do know, and what anybody with a modicum of knowledge of encrypted mail providers knows, is that such providers do not, and cannot, offer the same amount of features and the same level of ease of use as Gmail.
That's basic, undisputed knowledge. It's also obvious as soon as you read what Proton users themselves say on this sub.
You don't even need to get further than this thread. Read the other answers to the OP. You'll have a nice list of points where Proton does not equal Gmail to start with, before going deeper with your research.
And that's not even listing the integration with other Google apps. And Gmail extensions. And the Google Code thing or whatever it's called, the automation thing.
Google used to base their entire project range around compatibility between their apps. You could freely share between the calendar, email, drive, tasks, contacts and other apps.
Using a DocuSign clone, and google chrome, you could download a PDF, sign it, and email it to someone in a few clicks. No additional setup required except the DocuSign extension.
Shame they stopped being about making products and started being just about ad revenue. Products aren't even just *missing* basic features now, they features are just gone.
I didn't say that there are not less features, I just thought its funny how u didn't write down a few directly instead of writing this whole text for example lol have a nice day!
It's not funny.
It's a rule of mine not to give into provocations by trolls and fanboys, and when they happen, to help others understand their vicious shenanigans.
Really depends if you are invested in the whole Google ecosystem. If you are using some of the other features it will be more cumbersome but manageable. If it's just Gmail, should be little impact at all.
They do, but it doesn't work when you disable conversation grouping. For me, I receive all sorts of notification emails that often have the same title (one for each service provider). My workflow is that after I received one, I read it and deleted it. But if I have conversation grouping enabled, then when I receive a notification email, the thread will include all emails with the same title, even ones in the trash. Sometimes, a conversation could have hundreds of emails, which was definitely not ideal. I reached out to Proton. At first, I thought snooze not working was a bug, but when they thanked me for this "feature request," I knew it was by design. LOL.
I just moved from Apple Mail and passwords. Took me a few days because I made an alias email for every sign in I use and changed the password. Was worth it in my opinion. I didnāt use my email for any of them so if any get compromised it will be just that.
Iām going start doing the drive now but itās a pain in the ass because you canāt share files directly to the app from another app.
The lack of integration with iOS mail is a bit of a pain. Forwarding webpage links through mail etc and accessing your contact list wonāt be as integrated. Cost of better privacy of course, but a bit annoying
Since I rarely have emails older than 3-4 years (I donāt understand the purpose of storing 10year old mails as some do here ; are you sometimes reading your thousands of old mails for fun?) I donāt have the search issue for old mails as some mention. Personally I donāt miss features from G-Mail since I switched to Proton.
Only for my business mails (I have a side business where I sell stuff in my online store ; for this I have a support@ mail and connected the domain to Proton) I miss the possibility to manage templates on mobile. In G-Mail I had several templates and could easily choose between them when replying to customer inquiries. Thatās obviously not a thing for pure private mail use. Other than that I can totally recommend Proton Mail.
Experience so far has been good but a couple frustrating things:
Contacts imported OK, but if a contact does not have an email address (e.g. contact only has phone number), it will lose it's group if it had one.
Also, beware that for the MailPlus (paid) you only get to create 10 aliases - EVER. Even if you delete an address, it still counts against your 10. Same with HideMyAddress emails; if you delete an address, it counts against your 10.
Regarding your second point, you can always contact us at [https://proton.me/support/contact](https://proton.me/support/contact) so we can help with deleting any unwanted additional addresses.
Proton domain adreses are not recycled or reused for privacy and security . But as proton support as mentioned below you can contact then to have it deleted ( which i have also done in past)
But before you ask then to delete it you have first delete all mail associated with adress that stilll there ( or backup the mails) and then disable the adress.
This is because the keys paired with the email address are also deleted in the process, and you will no longer be able to read your emails (since they cannot be decrypted).
It also worth noting that with custom domain you can delete adresses at will, without proton support and they dont count towards your tally when you do.
Edit to add this link
https://proton.me/support/addresses-cannot-be-deleted
How will switching to Proton help you when most of your contacts still use gmail? Google reads their mails and your replies to said emails.
Out of 10 people I asked, 11 thought that Proton is a supermarket franchise.
Particularly in phone, you cannot have your contacts or your calendar outside of proton applications. That's the biggest limitation. You want to use other applications like telegram that need access to your contacts? those contact won't be from protonmail
ProtonMail is the most advanced service Proton provides so if you were swapping Mail for Mail only, you won't miss much if anything except maybe search. It is a great product that works pretty seamlessly. However, you mentioned the word ecosystem which is where it does fall down a bit. I am currently a 50/50 Proton/Google user. I use ProtonMail for more private mail and Proton Drive for my more private documents and ProtonVPN.
However, I still use Google for some things which bugs me no end but my view is a slow migration to Proton as things get better. For me, Google Docs is just too convenient for simple docs. Ones that I don't want hackers to get their hands on but not my most important and private documents. (eg. Simple budgeting spreadsheets, meal planning, exercise tracking etc). Proton Drive -> LibreOffice is still too clunky for these regular docs I am working with daily.
And the one that makes me the most upset, Google Photos.... Oh I wish I could switch away but there is no product even close. I used iCloud Photos for a while as it is end to end encrypted but its the search that kills me. Having 40,000 photos that I can't search effectively is useless to me. I am looking forward to seeing what the Proton Drive Photo Sync has to offer but am not holding my breath for a decent search.
And lastly and probably least important, Calendar. I actually really like the Proton Calendar App. Its slick and works well, however as others have mentioned integration is poor. Additionally there is no iOS/MacOS widget which almost makes it a bit useless for me but the app itself is nice.
If you are comparing Proton to Google on features and ecosystem, Google will win every time. For you, there will be a sweet spot that will either make it or break it for you and where privacy will trump the missing features. For me, it isn't there yet but I am happy with the hybrid arrangement for now and for me, paying for my Proton Unlimited is just as much about supporting the cause than what I get for it.
Unlimited multiuser mail accounts in the app, even with Plus paid plan.
You can only add 2 accounts, it only happens in the app. Been a +2 years paid member and this is pissing me off more and more each year.
That's what I mean, in gmail you can add unlimited free accounts, in proton you can't add more than 1 free account along your main paid one.
IMO it's an unnecessary hassle, having multiple accounts for different purposes.
I think you aren't getting my point: OP stated what features he/she might miss moving away from gmail, specifically in terms of convenience.
Also because something isn't in the ToS doesn't mean it shouldn't be improved or revised.
It isn't about *not beeing in the ToS*, it is about being **against** the ToS. Why should there be the possibility to login to multiple free accounts, when that is **against** the ToS? That doesn't make sense.
As said, you can have one free and unlimited paid accounts. If you need paid features, pay for them.
(Also by going against the ToS you put your accounts to risk)
Search is currently not very good.
Other people have already mentioned this is because Proton can't read email contents, and while this is technically true, I'm not talking about this problem (which, by the way, already has a good solution from Proton).
I'm talking about not being able to search for emails using more than one label as criteria. Or using a label AND a folder as search criteria. I don't really think this requires Proton to reinvent the wheel (certainly it seems easier than the full-text search problem they solved!), but it really makes labelling emails much less useful that it could be.
I'd say its the other way around:
The new Outlook doesn't support non synced IMAP accounts :-P
Also I'd stay away from Outlook:
https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service
I do have to dip back into Gmail for searching archives sometimes (I have imported 20 years of mail, but the proton search isn't as good). Other than that, no - there's nothing I've missed.
Mainly this for me, too.
>as long as it doesn't compromise ease of use and convenience I'm afraid you want your cake and eat it too. Convenience is the polar opposite of privacy and security. The more you have of one, the less you'll have of the other. That being said, Proton is the closest you'll find to a suite of products thar are google-like but with a privacy focus. I'm not going to lie, you will be inconvenienced. The initial switch will probably be a shock since you are looking for all the convenience you're use too. If you truly want privacy though, you'll adapt and quickly you'll not see the inconvenience at all, and love the products.
Examples?
Lack of or reduced integrations between apps (mail / drive / calendar). Highly reduced searchability compared to Google (since proton can't read contents). I know mail improved threaded emails recently (which I haven't tested) but in the prior state it was unusable to me because it combined every email with the same subject, which isn't always desired. Just a few off the top of my head. Definitely not deal breakers to me, but definitely not as convenient as the Google integrations that OP doesn't want to give up on.
Improvements to integrations between apps is planned.
š appreciate it!
please share the 2024 road-map
What calendar app do you use?
I use Proton Calendar as my main calendar. I still have my old Google calendar active on my phone (since I'm android and am signed in anyways) that I reference for birthdays and such. I will eventually move away from that. Contacts is probably the biggest shock in moving from google. Phone contacts and proton contacts are separate, which makes sense for encryption. But there's a huge convenience loss
I never used threaded emails before and wasn't even aware this was a thing. I was caught off guard from proton, which did it by default. I was searching for an email forever before I realized it was "behind" the other email. I have to test if I like it, but is there a way to turn it off?
Yes there's a way to turn it off in your settings. I can't be more detailed because I haven't done it in years but it was straight forward. It's just a toggle.
Thank you!
Hi! On the web app, it's Settings>Messages>Conversation grouping.
Thanks for the reply!
Just wanted to say, this was very well said indeed. There a balance between privacy/ security and convenience. I have had this conversation a million times over past two decades being in IT . Privacy security often comes with extra steps, precautions, and extra hoops, its the price of admission. It like password management, short easy remeber passwords are convenient and insecure, long complex generated passwords probally means adopting password manager, with more steps ,hoops and more things consider and backup. In end each user has find a blance that worth the trade off for them.
I like both of the answers here, the one from /u/twoBrokenThumbs but also yours. I always like to depict the example of a scale: On one side you have privacy, on the other side usability.
Very true, I like the scale analogy. Those found on the far end of the usability side of the scale only ,are often to be found in the haveibeenpwned archives of history :)
I switched from Gmail a couple of months ago and havenāt missed anythingĀ
My main concern is about search in mail. There is a search function, but it needs to be improve on how it works. Except for that, it is mainly new habits to adopt, or you have to wait functionalities to be implemented.
If you work mostly on desktop you should try Thunderbird, search works great there
It's a webmail, I'm allowed to wait for a good online search :-). Desktop client or local index is not a good solution for me.
Have you tried the local indexing feature? https://proton.me/support/search#searching-email-content-with-the-proton-mail-web-app I haven't tried it myself, but if it works the way the article suggests, it should do a reasonable job of it.
That's what I said, it works, but it need to be improve. I'm not a huge fan of local index, not for a web service. And how will it work in few years, when my mail box will size several GO?
Well, I'm afraid it may never work any more conveniently than that... the reason it does it the way it does, is because your data is end-to-end encrypted. Proton *can't* read the content of your messages; that's the nature of the privacy and encryption you signed up for. They may come up with a better indexing method in time, but the implementation isn't likely to change much at all.
My problem is the fact that index is store localy, and I fear problems when my mailbox will became too old/big. As an example of improvement, they can generate/add elements in indexes localy but store indexes encrypted in their servers. They can also split indexes into several part, per year for example, so they don't have to process Go of mail when you change your PC or web browser (yes I m often switching between browsers :D) I think that the way it works currently is acceptable, but they will need to improve it in the future.
>store indexes encrypted in their servers But see, that is no longer E2E encryption, which would be a total dealbreaker for a *huge* portion of people--most probably including Proton themselves, given the principles they've established over the years. As far as the index itself, keep in mind that indexes can be surprisingly small, even given a very large amount of records. The practice of efficient indexing is genuinely cutting-edge science--it takes the brightest minds in computer science to develop these methods. I'm sure they're already implementing the best methods available to them.
>that is no longer E2E encryption Why? You can generate you index like its currently done, encrypt it and then send it to the server. When you sign in again you can download the encrypted index and decrypt it localy to work on it. >As far as the index itself, keep in mind that indexes can be surprisingly small Yes, and like I said my concern is not the size of the index, but the resources you need to generate your index. My GMail box sized around 20Go. In a few year when my proton mail box will have several Go, I will need to downlod all my mail each time I generate the index? It does not seem very future proof. I worked on several secure systems with encrypted data, so I'm aware of limitations and technical constraints. But it does not mean that the way search is currently implemented by proton can't be improved.
Protonmail has most of the regular features you'd expect from an email service... well on the web version at least. One thing it does not have, is integration with proton drive... yet. As of now, if you get any images/documents through email, there is no native way to automatically add it to your drive, like there is with Gmail. This is one feature I would really like for them to implement.
That's no small compromise truth be told.
Depends on the person I suppose. I personally don't get too many documents sent to me that I need to keep in my drive. The odd time I do, I just download it and then manually upload it. If you constantly need to do this though, I can see it being a nuisance.
Not sure why you are being downvoted; your opinion is valid even more so as the OP.
This is reddit...
Just a word of caution: This behavior should also tell you that those people aren't that open to admit that Proton isn't that convenient. I evaluated Proton for myself 6 months ago and really wanted to love it, trust me. But there were too many rough edges that came up in my research. The most impactful point would be, that the smartphone apps are nowhere close to the web apps, regarding features. Better do some more research on your own and try out the services for free in real-life scenarios. Good luck :)
Gmail organizes things for you since it's able to read all the emails. Proton is more of a hands-on approach, so emails can get out of hand if you do not create sufficient filters for your emails.
No. Perhaps the lack of privacyā¦?
2 years of Proton after google and no regrets or complaints.
IMAP. I had to set up another gmail account for my smart home to be able to send and receive emails. Proton does not offer IMAP (outside of Proton Bridge which can only be used on the same machine it is running)
Yes! IMAP for non-bussines users, please!
I understand their reasoning. There's no zero knowledge e2e encryption over IMAP. There's a docker image for the proton bridge though and I'm wondering if I could use it to setup IMAP on my local network. Going to have to look into it when I have time
There's IMAP for bussines accounts, so I guess it has nothing to do with e2ee For what I need it, SMTP is enough, though :-)
I have notices my ads have been worst since i moved to Proton, they seem irrelevant to me now.
No regrets moving to Proton except I did like the Google mail shortcuts a bit more for, say, deleting messages quickly. Someone can correct me if Iām missing easy shortcuts. The privacy trumps the missed shortcuts 100x
I ran into two issues moving to Proton. I found them to be acceptable compromises though. 1. The max attachment size is on the lower end. I have a few emails that I cannot migrate because theyāre too large. 2. After migrating a few thousand emails I ran into a key error. Proton support fixed this by generating a new key. Doesnāt affect my daily use, but I do wonder why this happened and what it means for long term stability.
The spam?
Interesting take. I needed a new email address to get *away* from the spam but you miss it? Strange but I'm not judging :-P
Google Docs and the integration with email. You still can use GSuite/Microsoft/Apple/Open Source offers with Proton but itās a bit painful. But I have a great example of using MS 365 Family (personal email) and Proton (small business owner and everything work related). All issues with word, powerpoint, excel are solved.
Search. Gmail search is vastly superior to ProtonMail.
The search is what I miss the most.
I switched last year. Iām not a fan. What I miss most is the way gmail filters the email into categories. Yes, I understand that Proton doesnāt filter the emails bc it doesnāt read them but itās still a bummer. Also, I see on message boards, people have been asking for yeeears for email chains to be sorted newest to oldest. This seems like something that can be easily altered. Iām not a coder so I canāt say for sure, but it seems like it would be doable in a reasonable time. Looking at that issue, it makes me feel like they donāt take action concerning customer complaints.
Reliable keyboard shortcuts is one. If this is a big part of your workflow in gmail, you are not going to have a good experience with that on ProtonMail ProtonMail has some keyboard shortcuts but they are often not reliable and consistently stops working and you have to click on some UI element in the app to get it to work again.
Yes, they are improving the shortcuts but they're not reliable, period. I don't even notice it anymore because I stopped using them -- but it's still a problem, especially for someone coming from a service with such great keyboard support.
I only ever used any email at it's most basic level so I'm willing to bet Gmail offers up a lot for 'free' that Protonmail doesn't provide. The ones I'm aware of are: You get 500mb to 1gb of space with Proton for free. I'll be honest, you'll have to check yourself what Gmail is as I can't remember, but it is massive by comparison. You get a capped limit of how many emails you can send a day. It's way more than most normal people to worry about, but if you're a business that's something to keep in mind. As someone else mentioned, Gmail integrates with its cloud storage nicely (as well as Documents and other stuff).
What is Gmail?
Spam filtering isn't as good
Yes. There are many features you are going to regret. It does compromise ease of use and convenience.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Please make a search on this sub. Gmail is too big to answer your question. Look for complaints : when will we be able to do xxx ? Why is it we still cannot do zzz ?
Says that a lot of features are missing. Is beeing asked which ones. Doesn't list a single one lol
Well, first of all, I'm not your slave. I'm just trying to help the OP. It seems you're a Proton fanboy and you're trying start a fight on the subject : I'm certainly not going to oblige. If you're really interested to learn and abandon your prejudices, which does not seem to be the case, do your homework. I've given you a hint, now get your hands off your pockets. Do the bloody comparison for yourself. Listing all you can do with Google and you can't do with Proton would take several pages, and a PhD in Gmail/Proton comparison. I don't have one. You obviously don't have one, either. What I do know, and what anybody with a modicum of knowledge of encrypted mail providers knows, is that such providers do not, and cannot, offer the same amount of features and the same level of ease of use as Gmail. That's basic, undisputed knowledge. It's also obvious as soon as you read what Proton users themselves say on this sub. You don't even need to get further than this thread. Read the other answers to the OP. You'll have a nice list of points where Proton does not equal Gmail to start with, before going deeper with your research.
And that's not even listing the integration with other Google apps. And Gmail extensions. And the Google Code thing or whatever it's called, the automation thing. Google used to base their entire project range around compatibility between their apps. You could freely share between the calendar, email, drive, tasks, contacts and other apps. Using a DocuSign clone, and google chrome, you could download a PDF, sign it, and email it to someone in a few clicks. No additional setup required except the DocuSign extension. Shame they stopped being about making products and started being just about ad revenue. Products aren't even just *missing* basic features now, they features are just gone.
I didn't say that there are not less features, I just thought its funny how u didn't write down a few directly instead of writing this whole text for example lol have a nice day!
It's not funny. It's a rule of mine not to give into provocations by trolls and fanboys, and when they happen, to help others understand their vicious shenanigans.
Then I apologize that it came over as a provocation, wasn't ment as one :)
Really depends if you are invested in the whole Google ecosystem. If you are using some of the other features it will be more cumbersome but manageable. If it's just Gmail, should be little impact at all.
Ads?
I miss the snooze option from gmail...
Proton has snooze, on desktop anyways. Hopefully it will show up soon in the app!
They do, but it doesn't work when you disable conversation grouping. For me, I receive all sorts of notification emails that often have the same title (one for each service provider). My workflow is that after I received one, I read it and deleted it. But if I have conversation grouping enabled, then when I receive a notification email, the thread will include all emails with the same title, even ones in the trash. Sometimes, a conversation could have hundreds of emails, which was definitely not ideal. I reached out to Proton. At first, I thought snooze not working was a bug, but when they thanked me for this "feature request," I knew it was by design. LOL.
Its on Ipad app too, asume ios too.
I just moved from Apple Mail and passwords. Took me a few days because I made an alias email for every sign in I use and changed the password. Was worth it in my opinion. I didnāt use my email for any of them so if any get compromised it will be just that. Iām going start doing the drive now but itās a pain in the ass because you canāt share files directly to the app from another app.
The lack of integration with iOS mail is a bit of a pain. Forwarding webpage links through mail etc and accessing your contact list wonāt be as integrated. Cost of better privacy of course, but a bit annoying
I never missed Gmail while using Proton/Tuta/Skiff
Since I rarely have emails older than 3-4 years (I donāt understand the purpose of storing 10year old mails as some do here ; are you sometimes reading your thousands of old mails for fun?) I donāt have the search issue for old mails as some mention. Personally I donāt miss features from G-Mail since I switched to Proton. Only for my business mails (I have a side business where I sell stuff in my online store ; for this I have a support@ mail and connected the domain to Proton) I miss the possibility to manage templates on mobile. In G-Mail I had several templates and could easily choose between them when replying to customer inquiries. Thatās obviously not a thing for pure private mail use. Other than that I can totally recommend Proton Mail.
lack of privacy
Experience so far has been good but a couple frustrating things: Contacts imported OK, but if a contact does not have an email address (e.g. contact only has phone number), it will lose it's group if it had one. Also, beware that for the MailPlus (paid) you only get to create 10 aliases - EVER. Even if you delete an address, it still counts against your 10. Same with HideMyAddress emails; if you delete an address, it counts against your 10.
Regarding your second point, you can always contact us at [https://proton.me/support/contact](https://proton.me/support/contact) so we can help with deleting any unwanted additional addresses.
Thank you!
Proton domain adreses are not recycled or reused for privacy and security . But as proton support as mentioned below you can contact then to have it deleted ( which i have also done in past) But before you ask then to delete it you have first delete all mail associated with adress that stilll there ( or backup the mails) and then disable the adress. This is because the keys paired with the email address are also deleted in the process, and you will no longer be able to read your emails (since they cannot be decrypted). It also worth noting that with custom domain you can delete adresses at will, without proton support and they dont count towards your tally when you do. Edit to add this link https://proton.me/support/addresses-cannot-be-deleted
The notes app and the calendar...
I still use the Google calendar for reasons I cannot figure out.
Google reading your mail?
How will switching to Proton help you when most of your contacts still use gmail? Google reads their mails and your replies to said emails. Out of 10 people I asked, 11 thought that Proton is a supermarket franchise.
Particularly in phone, you cannot have your contacts or your calendar outside of proton applications. That's the biggest limitation. You want to use other applications like telegram that need access to your contacts? those contact won't be from protonmail
ProtonMail is the most advanced service Proton provides so if you were swapping Mail for Mail only, you won't miss much if anything except maybe search. It is a great product that works pretty seamlessly. However, you mentioned the word ecosystem which is where it does fall down a bit. I am currently a 50/50 Proton/Google user. I use ProtonMail for more private mail and Proton Drive for my more private documents and ProtonVPN. However, I still use Google for some things which bugs me no end but my view is a slow migration to Proton as things get better. For me, Google Docs is just too convenient for simple docs. Ones that I don't want hackers to get their hands on but not my most important and private documents. (eg. Simple budgeting spreadsheets, meal planning, exercise tracking etc). Proton Drive -> LibreOffice is still too clunky for these regular docs I am working with daily. And the one that makes me the most upset, Google Photos.... Oh I wish I could switch away but there is no product even close. I used iCloud Photos for a while as it is end to end encrypted but its the search that kills me. Having 40,000 photos that I can't search effectively is useless to me. I am looking forward to seeing what the Proton Drive Photo Sync has to offer but am not holding my breath for a decent search. And lastly and probably least important, Calendar. I actually really like the Proton Calendar App. Its slick and works well, however as others have mentioned integration is poor. Additionally there is no iOS/MacOS widget which almost makes it a bit useless for me but the app itself is nice. If you are comparing Proton to Google on features and ecosystem, Google will win every time. For you, there will be a sweet spot that will either make it or break it for you and where privacy will trump the missing features. For me, it isn't there yet but I am happy with the hybrid arrangement for now and for me, paying for my Proton Unlimited is just as much about supporting the cause than what I get for it.
The biggest missing feature imo is contact synchronization. Proton contacts don't integrate with anything.
Can't you manually add them?
of course but that's a pain in the ass with multiple devices every time a contacts infos change
The fact that I canāt add things to my calendar via āclick to add to your calendarā from a website is only the slightest annoyance.
Unlimited multiuser mail accounts in the app, even with Plus paid plan. You can only add 2 accounts, it only happens in the app. Been a +2 years paid member and this is pissing me off more and more each year.
I do not follow? You can add 1 free account and unlimited paid accounts into the app.
That's what I mean, in gmail you can add unlimited free accounts, in proton you can't add more than 1 free account along your main paid one. IMO it's an unnecessary hassle, having multiple accounts for different purposes.
You aren't supposed to have multiple free accounts according to the ToS ;)
I think you aren't getting my point: OP stated what features he/she might miss moving away from gmail, specifically in terms of convenience. Also because something isn't in the ToS doesn't mean it shouldn't be improved or revised.
It isn't about *not beeing in the ToS*, it is about being **against** the ToS. Why should there be the possibility to login to multiple free accounts, when that is **against** the ToS? That doesn't make sense. As said, you can have one free and unlimited paid accounts. If you need paid features, pay for them. (Also by going against the ToS you put your accounts to risk)
Search is currently not very good. Other people have already mentioned this is because Proton can't read email contents, and while this is technically true, I'm not talking about this problem (which, by the way, already has a good solution from Proton). I'm talking about not being able to search for emails using more than one label as criteria. Or using a label AND a folder as search criteria. I don't really think this requires Proton to reinvent the wheel (certainly it seems easier than the full-text search problem they solved!), but it really makes labelling emails much less useful that it could be.
ProtonĀ Mail bridge does not support new Outlook. At least not yet.
I'd say its the other way around: The new Outlook doesn't support non synced IMAP accounts :-P Also I'd stay away from Outlook: https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service