Here’s Clubic’s interview in French with Proton’s boss, who confirms that Proton Browser, Proton Chat and Proton Phone are indeed on the way.
It’s time for me to leave Proton’s paid, closed ecosystem.
A company that ends up becoming just like Google — what a disappointment!
I don’t use Proton services (have one unused mail account), but I think it’s good to have complete ecosystem alternative to Google, Microsoft or Apple. Some people, and more important, some companies would prefer to have one single reliable supplier for all the stuff. And unlike big three, Proton offers better privacy. Only browser is probably pointless, but he still didn’t confirm they are making one. But even if it’s plain Chromium with proton account login, I would say it makes sense.
People and businesses need to have simple way to replace big tech. If I would recommend small company to use e.g. tuta for mails, matrix (payed hosting) for RTC, tresorit for cloud storage, cryptpad for office doc collaboration, bitwarden as a password manager… I think they would just go for google or microsoft.
Holy… The folks at Proton are really letting things get out of hand. I understand their strategy, but can’t they see that for years they’ve been offering products that should come with a “beta” label and that they’re selling them as if they were finished? Soon we’ll see Proton laptops, Proton forks of LineageOS, etc. My God…
If proton chat works on desktop and I can convince people who won’t use signal to use proton chat then that will be good news. We really need a discord like experience with private messaging + the bells and whistles that can get someone to consider leaving discord.
Well, seems like that isn’t happening anytime soon though:
So yes, we’re going to have to do it. I don’t know when, or exactly how, or exactly where, but the logic of ecosystems also dictates this path.
Also, this is quite the quote:
We’ll end up doing everything; it’s just a matter of scheduling and timing.
That last part seems like a good summary of Proton’s modus operandi, for better or worse.
Spray and pray strategy it seems.
Well, Proton are smart. The more I read this forum the more reasonable their decisions look.
There are more secure email providers, cheaper, more secure and faster cloud storage options. But a lot of people are happy to pay for a single subscription and get all of that in one place. So bundling a lot of products under one marketing narrative and one subscription does sell.
I agree, my only concern is stretching too thin and have mediocracity on many surfaces.
I don’t know what you are all expecting from Proton. This is the same guy who sincerely argued and believed that Trump was likely to crack down on Big Tech. 
()
As other people have mentioned, many of their existing products are buggy, they don’t even have native clients for all there products on Linux yet. They obviously aren’t trying to be the pinnacle of privacy. Some of their products are genuinely good (mail & pass), the rest are pretty mid and I don’t expect that to change.
Proton is trying to appeal to a mass audience and get people out of the Google and Microsoft hellholes. For that, they remain far and away the best option, there is no other option even close. The average person is not going to even consider moving away from Google unless something like this exists.
I’m often disappointed by their decisions, but I keep things in perspective by remembering these things. (I say all this as someone who uses and will continue using Proton products at least until the point we see a legitimate red flag that they are turning evil.)
The part that pisses me off about this the most (besides the fact that they’re spreading themselves thin while still not addressing long standing issues and missing features in current products) is that they’re not targeting big tech, they’re targeting existing open source projects with unnecessary alternatives.
They are showing their true colors. They are against the open source community. Instead of collaborating with open source projects like Signal, GrapheneOS, browsers, etc, they’re trying to kick them out of the space altogether to create a privacy monopoly.
Proton is not even fully open source. Their servers are closed source and for things like Proton Calendar, it’s barely even source available. Source code on apps they do release are also very often delayed after they already released apps in the respective app stores when it should be the other way around. The community has very little input or transparency.
Once they have control and have broken all the open standards, why bother even caring about privacy anymore? Privacy isn’t even the only thing they’re focusing on anymore. They seem to care more about identifying themselves as a European tech company to cater to the divest USA crowd these days, obviously hoping to land contracts with larger European institutions. You really think these customers care as much about user privacy? They just want to be able to say they’re not relying on American tech anymore.
I like Signal. I like GrapheneOS. Proton could have greatly backed LadyBird, but they’d rather create yet another chromium browser.
What, I’m suppose to believe people will be more willing to use Proton Chat instead of Signal? Most people have already heard of Signal.
Meanwhile, how about things that fill in gaps that the FOSS community currently lacks?
How about Google Voice alternative? How about an e2ee reminders/to do app that people have been asking for?
How about Proton Photos so users can actually take advantage of their Proton storage?
Even an e2ee contactless nfc wallet or a Proton News and Proton Finance services to compete with the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc would be more useful than the stuff they’re planning.
I don’t even know how to react from this. I was planning on moving to the paid Proton ecosystem in the next month or so. But I’m not blind to what they’re doing. If I do go with them, it now feels like I’ll be jumping ship again sooner than I expected.
@ZenByte Mate, it’s incredible — you’ve completely understood Proton’s problem.
Proton is against open source. Its aim is to establish a monopoly by driving out the competition. Proton could have supported LibreOffice, but instead it prefers to launch its own suite; or it could have supported Firefox or Ladybird, but instead it prefers to launch yet another browser based on Chromium. It could even have supported Signal or SimpleX, but once again it prefers to launch an instant messaging app.
Proton doesn’t offer more choice; its aim is to compete with every solution at once, even if that means releasing unfinished services.
LibreOffice, Signal/SimpleX and Firefox are struggling (Ladybird still has to prove itself), but instead of supporting them, Proton wants to compete with them.
I’m leaving Proton for good. I can’t stand this company any more.
I’m not surprised. Andy Yen has been saying that for awhile now. Their view is that the only way to have people drop off Apple / Microsoft / Google is to build another on par or better ecosystem.
It’s a good thing as long as Proton doesn’t enshittify.
It’s a big if though.
I’m staying wary, but there are some safeguards in place. They’re not perfect, but I’d link to this thread for a perspective on the matter: What Proton being a Swiss non-profit foundation actually means
Please Andy, just finish Calendar. It’s all I ask.
I think a Proton alternative to Signal isn’t a bad idea. I’m not sure if I’m as interested in a Proton phone when GrapheneOS is available, but more options are good for consumers!
How is Signal struggling?