Anything they would prioritize have wins and drawbacks.
It costs extra resources to build it, so it is good they separate it to have separate funding, so people would complain less about Proton wasting precious resource on AI. But easy for me to speak, being on the visionary plan 
I would probably think the same as you if I would have Unlimited. Maybe upgrade? Its worth it. But there is also DuckDuckGo AI, which have some privacy benefits as well and donāt cost.
Personally, I like this. Obviously this is aimed at businesses not individuals. Having support for a reliable videoconferencing software is effectively required for businesses, so this could help lower the cost for a business on Proton versus maintaining separate Proton + Zoom subscriptions. It brings Proton plans closer to parity to Google/Microsoft.
I did not know we could upgrade to that plan. I thought Visionary was only accessible to early supporters of Proton from 2014.
Yes, you are right, its exclusive plan not easy to attain or discover.
At the moment I see these paths:
Personally I upgraded some years ago, when Proton send me special offer.
Alternative is to buy Lumo separately, but there are better deals than Lumo. This is very good for example https://nano-gpt.com/ anonymous, private (privacy degree depends on the selected model), very powerful and cheap.
It is. We should not talk off topic.
Visionary isnāt something you can just upgrade to on a whim. Itās basically a legacy, early-supporter tier that comes from the ProtonMail crowdfunding days back in 2014, and Proton only ever opens the door again in very specific, time-boxed ways. Over the last decade the handful of paths people have seen are things like the rare ālifetimeā sales or charity auctions around 2016ā2020, and a couple of product windows where Proton temporarily made Visionary available again ā the desktop Mail beta late in 2023 and the Proton Wallet early-access rollouts in 2024 being the most recent examples. The patternās pretty steady: they bring it back around big launches, usually via in-app banners, emails, or blog posts aimed at existing paid users, and when those windows close the option vanishes. If you want a shot, the practical play is to stay on a paid plan (Unlimited/Family), keep Protonās account messages and emails turned on, watch the blog around major launches, and be ready to move fast if a limited window pops up ā and if you do take Visionary, treat it like a permanent seat at the table: downgrading later wonāt get you back in.
I actually upgraded from Unlimited to Visionary myself shortly after the pandemic during an offering that appeared in my account as part of the Proton charity event and a special limited window they had open as part of Black Friday.
Iām guessing you read my post about this?
What does fully merging mean for you?
I agree. If I had to guess why itās taking so long, Iād say itās because they havenāt figured out how to integrate it without disrupting the experience of current users. IMHO, Proton wants but also needs to overhaul Standard Notes, but that will rightly piss off its current user base. Are you aware that the founder recently resigned?
To me, it feels like they are not innovating enough. Their recent new products are not built from scratch, but on top of existing open sourced services (Lumo, Proton Meet).
Also, just making a service private is not enough, if there are no shiny features that would attract people outside the privacy community but also inside the privacy community when there is competition in that market. Adding aliases to Proton Pass was a genius innovation that made Proton very competitive in the password manager market. Itās the kind of thing I want to see.
Proton Drive should look at what Ente is doing with photos and see how they can match that. They have way more resources.
I donāt think that las part is a bad thing. I want them to do that. The problem is, they donāt spend enough time making those products outshine the competition.
Do you think it will eventually be integrated into Proton Unlimited?
Maybe so, but as someone who was extremely disappointed by the shut-down of Skype, I can see it being useful for individuals too. I have a lot of friends and family who donāt live in the same city and/or country as me. Many of them donāt use Signal, and it would be easier to schedule a call with them via Proton Meet, because they wouldnāt need an account.
If down the line Proton added the ability to add credit with which one could make calls to landlines and cellphone across the world, that would be amazing!
Sassy much?
Iāve been considering getting MySudo or some other sort of extra phone number, but at the pace Proton seems to be expanding their product line, Iām tempted to just hold off a couple months and see if those donāt release Proton Voice or something like that.
Itās not out of the realm of possibilities. Proton has always considered itself the private and secure version of the core Google suite. So, this Iām willing to bet is indeed on its way but not anytime soon. In the next 2 years is my bet at the earliest but Iāll be happy to be proven wrong.