Is turning a webpage into a desktop app more private?

Questions
1

I tried turning Proton Mail into a desktop app by following some instructions on GitHub. It’s working nicely for me on Windows and a friend’s Linux computer.

Unfortunately, the compiled app doesn’t seem accessible to people other than me. I’m not sure why. I’m hoping someone more experienced with GitHub can help me make a “release”?

Since I’m using a free Proton Mail account, this desktop app functionality is probably limited compared to the official app. But it made me wonder - could this approach work to turn other web apps into desktop apps? Might it enhance privacy by avoiding browsers and cookies?

2

Ok it looks like there is a more advanced guide to make releases. I will try this when I get some time. Hopefully my question still makes sense without being able to see the result.

3

The first thing that comes to mind is far larger probability of having a unique fingerprint since you’ll be the only one using this website on Electron instead of regular Firefox or another browser.

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4

As Proton Mail website supports PWA natively, why don’t you just install the web as PWA?

I read the project. It seems the main goals are the performance benefits and native feel. But it also said that PWA is good enough. Also, the browser’s sandbox would be a lot more effective than the system’s sandbox, security-wise. Considering a ton of Electron issues, this probably makes some senses.

Moreover, you wouldn’t get any support from the service, e.g. your bug report would be rejected immediately. The loss is far outweighed the gain IMO.

It seems the project doesn’t use Electron.

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5

ProtonMail’s official desktop app is in beta available to all paying customers: How to get started with the Proton Mail desktop app | Proton

6

Not available for Linux users, though.

Considering that Proton Mail Bridge is open source, while the desktop app is currently not, is there any advantage the desktop app has over the bridge?

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7

The desktop app is a dedicated app and doesn’t rely on another mail client. This means that it gets sandboxed as an app by the OS, which provides greater protection than the browser (at least on macs). Moreover, the bridge on MacOS requires adding a system profile which is not possible with lockdown mode enabled. On Windows, it benefits users who may not want to use the default mail app for privacy reasons. Across all platforms, it’s nice to be able to view and edit Proton account settings within the app rather than logging in every time from the browser.

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8

This means that it gets sandboxed as an app by the OS, which provides greater protection than the browser (at least on macs).

Source? If anything I would have thought the browser’s sandbox would be more secure.

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9

ElectronMail does exist and does quite well in the context of an electron app. reproducible builds is nice. works on the linux, mac, and windows. I’ve always wondered why no one had done a tauri client.

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