Title says it all.
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For me it’s all working well but I just noticed:
“For now, the beta version of the Proton Mail desktop app is restricted to anyone with a Visionary plan due to capacity constraints and our desire to be agile and responsive to the feedback we receive. We’ll expand access to the beta in early 2024 to all Proton Mail users — follow us on social media and our blog for the latest news.”
Just to avoid some disappointment 
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Also, spoiler alert: the app also includes calendar app view. Strangely, not with its own dock icon yet.
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Sweet! I use Electron Mail right now to switch between accounts quickly so I’m excited to see the multi-account feature added soon… 
Switching accounts is not supported. If you need to use another account, you’ll need to log out and log in again.
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I love proton in general but the way they handle their pricing stuff annoys me sometimes. Putting a beta desktop client behind a $30/month paywall definitely falls in that bucket along with not allowing people to choose which paid services they want in a ala carte style (ie getting mail+ and drive+ without being forced into unlimited).
I know they will expand it to everyone eventually but $30/month for early access is a ridiculous price.
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I (kind of) agree – I wish they would’ve rolled it out to Proton Unlimited too, but I get that a smaller group of beta testers (which are active users) is much more helpful to find bugs and stuff. I wouldn’t call it “early access,” but more that they’re rolling out beta access to the most expensive plan.
Unfortunately not all companies hold the Mullvad philosophy. Gotta love flat rate subscriptions, but I also like discounts…hmmm
Feels very much like they intend it to be called “early access”
Yeah I agree, there are tons of much more reasonable pricing iterations they could of gone with.
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Why is ridiculous at all? It’s an exclusive preview for people who are early adopters… Nothing wrong with that. The entire pricing discussion seems completely off topic to me. Also 5 euro per month per user? That is dirt cheap.
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How is it off topic? Anyone interested in early access, which this post is letting people know about, has to consider the price.
Yes, 5 euro per month per user is cheap if you actually need that but if all you want is early access you are still forced into the same price.
Thats my point with
Proton has gone through an evolution.
They used to have a robust free tier. As they got bigger they took popular free services and put them behind a paywall. Makes sense, they are growing and need more revenue. Now, they are taking premium services and forcing people to buy expensive bundles regardless if you need the whole bundle.
As I mentioned before as an example if all you need is mail+ and drive+ you are still forced to buy unlimited. Now if all you want is early access for desktop mail you are now forced into a $30 (possibly $40) per month service. It would of been much more reasonable to also include this with mail+ or unlimited.
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I think it makes a lot of sense to let people pay for early access and let people who share their accounts aka the promoters/visonaries in first. Early adopters in any industry pay a price for it. I think it is a completely fine and fair business decision. If you don’t want it just wait for the regular release…
It’s off topic because this is about the news of it being available not about the price… But sure whatever it’s a close line.
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I dont mind not having the app. Janky app is janky especially from Proton. I got into their early bridge (requested it from support) when it wasnt officially out for Linux yet and it feels rough.
Go ask support anyway if you really want the early access thing. I’m sure they’ll allow it if you are willing to contribute back with bug reports and feedback. Just ask very nicely and maybe they wont say no.
I wouldn’t be hopeful. My experiences with Proton support have been pretty poor. I doubt they’d make any exceptions considering how isolated their support staff seem from real involvement in Proton development. I understand given Proton’s size as a company, but it is unfortunate for some things as a user.
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Proton Support denied me access to Desktop App.
@bee was right.
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out with your inquiry.
Kindly note that, unfortunately, the Proton Mail Desktop app is released to a small percentage of Visionary subscribers. Please accept our humble apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
However, we would like you to know that as the Beta software becomes more stable and close to being released publicly, it will become available for a larger portion of our users to test out.We would like to thank you for your understanding and interest.
In the meantime, would you please let us know if there is anything else we could be doing for you?We remain at your disposal. Thank you for your collaboration.
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
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I’d rather have the bridge for mobile OS as well as a calendar bridge, than a desktop app for (only their) email.
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Ive just received their marketing email.
Im with @Regime6045 here. I’d very much want an encrypted DAV bridge for my Contacts and Calendar. I’ve already setup my Evolution the way I want and I really doubt if they could improve it, seeing that their clients looks a bit like like their webmail (so I am guessing Electron app?).
Can confirm it is electron.
Personally, I prefer having the proton clients. The concept of a bridge is more unstable.
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I agree … except for contacts. Without interoperability with smartphone contacts Proton contacts just isn’t great. Maintaining two separate parallel contacts lists is frustrating.
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Well i am hoping for a proton contact app.
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I just want something encrypted and interoperable so that my desktop would work
Until it’s released for Linux, i’ll stick with the PWA
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