Proton Launches Native Mail App on Desktop in Limited Beta

Privacy-focused Proton has finally launched a native Proton Mail app on Windows and Mac in a limited beta, with plans to expand access to more users in early 2024.

“The Proton Mail desktop app is currently in beta and doesn’t support all the features available on the web app yet,” the company explains. “For now, the beta version of the Proton Mail desktop app is restricted to anyone with a Visionary plan [which costs $29.99 per month] due to capacity constraints and our desire to be agile and responsive to the feedback we receive.”

Proton Mail—which also includes Calendar—has long been available on the web and mobile, and so the introduction of a native desktop client is, of course, welcome news. But for now, the app lacks many features from the web version for now, including offline support, account switching, notification badges for unread messages, mailto: link support, ICS support, and Easy Switch. But Proton says it plans to add those features over time.

For those unfamiliar with the company and its products, Proton Mail dates back to 2014, and the company bills its core product as the world’s largest secure email service. But the firm has since renamed itself to Proton as it added more and more secure and private products, including Proton Calendar, Drive, VPN, and Pass (a password manager). And it’s emerged as a key alternative for those who want more security and privacy than is offered by Big Tech firms like Google and Microsoft. Proton Drive, for example, is open source, offers end-to-end encryption, and offers some of the strictest privacy protections because the company is based in Switzerland, and it just added phone-based photo backup capabilities.

Obviously, this and other paid services tend to be more expensive than the Big Tech options: A 500 GB Proton Drive plan costs $9.99 per month with a one-year commitment, whereas Google and Microsoft offer 1 or 2 TB for that price. (It also provides access to Proton VPN and Pass.)

In any event, this is a company worth checking out, as is Proton Mail and its other products. You can learn more on the Proton website.