Proton Mail: Encrypted Email

Review by eFreeware

Most of us hand our inbox to a company that scans it, profiles us and sells the results to advertisers. That trade has felt normal for so long that plenty of people never question it. Proton Mail exists to offer the opposite arrangement: an email service where the contents of your messages are not something the provider can read.

The app comes from Proton AG, which has been shipping this Android client since March 2016. It is free to install, carries no advertising, and offers in-app purchases alongside the free tier. More than ten million people have installed it, and it holds a 4.5 average across roughly 95,000 ratings, which suggests the approach resonates well beyond the privacy-minded niche.

What end-to-end encryption means here

The feature the developer leads with is encryption, and the mechanics are worth understanding before you commit. Messages are encrypted on your device with a key that Proton says it does not hold, then stored on Proton's servers in that encrypted state. In the company's phrasing, this zero-access design means it lacks the technical ability to decrypt what you have stored. The practical result is that a message intercepted in transit, or sitting on a server, is not readable by whoever obtains it.

Encryption is strongest when both ends run on the same system. Between Proton users, mail is end-to-end encrypted from the moment it leaves the sender until the recipient opens it. When you write to someone on a different service, you can instead send a password-protected message, which lets the recipient unlock it with a shared secret rather than reading it in the clear. That covers the common case of corresponding with people who have no intention of changing providers.

The cryptography is not a black box. Proton publishes its code and relies on open-source libraries. The developer argues that open implementations make hidden back doors far harder to slip in. I find that argument persuasive in principle, and it is one reason this app gets taken seriously by people who read security documentation for fun.

Living with it day to day

An encrypted inbox is only useful if it behaves like a normal one, and this app offers the usual mail features alongside its encryption. Signing up gives you a @proton.me or @protonmail.com address, and the app handles encrypted messages and attachments while letting you run more than one Proton account side by side. Folders, labels and swipe gestures handle the tidying, and notifications arrive as you would expect from any mail client.

Two features stand out for anyone with an established address elsewhere. Gmail auto-forwarding pulls messages from one or more Gmail accounts into your Proton inbox, so you keep the convenience of the old address while the new one becomes your home base. Separately, you can send and receive Gmail mail directly inside Proton Mail, which cuts down on app-switching if you are not ready to abandon Google entirely.

The inbox itself has some thoughtful touches. Automatic categories sort incoming mail into private groupings, which helps keep the important messages visible without you building rules by hand. Dark mode is available for anyone who reads at night, and the developer describes this version of the app as redesigned for easier reading, writing and organizing.

Moving your mail across

Switching email providers has historically been the reason people stay put, so Proton built a migration tool for it. Easy Switch transfers messages, calendars and contacts from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud Mail or AOL, and the developer describes the process as taking a few taps with no manual exporting or importing. If you have years of archived mail, that is the difference between a weekend project and an afternoon.

I would treat the migration as the first thing to do after creating an account, before you start handing out your new address. Get the old mail across, confirm that your contacts and calendar survived, then set up forwarding from any remaining accounts so nothing lands in a mailbox you have stopped checking. Doing it in that order avoids the awkward period where two inboxes are half-alive and you are not sure which one to trust.

Once you are settled, it is worth deciding who actually needs a password-protected message. Sending one to a colleague at a company with its own mail system is a reasonable habit for anything sensitive; sending them for routine scheduling just adds friction for the recipient. The same goes for multiple accounts: keeping work and personal addresses separate inside one app is tidy, but only if you actually use the separation.

What it asks of you

The app is free to download and free to use, with no ads in the way. Proton's stated position is that privacy should not be a paid feature, and that upgrading to a paid plan is how you get more done while supporting the mission. Those in-app purchases exist, and the developer frames them as an optional upgrade rather than a requirement for basic use. I would take that framing at face value while noting that any service with a paid tier is ultimately built around the people who buy it.

The other thing it asks for is a new address. You are creating a @proton.me or @protonmail.com identity, not simply logging into the one you already have, and that means telling people where to find you. Forwarding softens the transition, but at some point the old address has to become a forwarding rule rather than your real inbox. That is a social cost as much as a technical one.

There is also a learning curve around encryption itself. The distinction between mail sent to another Proton user and mail sent to everyone else is not something most people have had to think about before, and password-protected messages require a small amount of coordination with the recipient. None of it is difficult, but it is different, and different takes a little getting used to.

Who gets the most from it

The clearest fit is someone who already cares where their email lives. If you have ever felt uneasy about the idea of automated scanning, or you handle material you would rather not have profiled, this app is built for exactly that concern, and the encryption is the product rather than a badge on the marketing page.

It also suits people who want to leave a big provider without losing their history. Easy Switch, Gmail forwarding and in-app Gmail access mean you can migrate gradually, keeping the old address alive while the new one takes over. Anyone who has put off switching because of the hassle of moving a decade of messages will find that objection addressed directly.

Journalists, lawyers, clinicians and others who correspond with people about sensitive matters are an obvious audience, though the app does not require a professional reason. A household that shares account details, a student sending documents, or anyone who simply prefers not to be the product can use it the same way. The free tier keeps that decision low-stakes.

A considered choice for a private inbox

Proton Mail is a mature, well-reviewed app with a clear purpose, and it does not pretend to be a general-purpose mail client with encryption bolted on. The encryption is the foundation, and everything else, from zero-access storage to password-protected messages to the published cryptography, follows from it. The supporting features are solid enough that you are not sacrificing convenience for the principle.

The trade-offs are real but modest: a new address to establish, an occasional extra step when writing to people outside the service, and a paid tier that exists for those who want more. None of those are reasons to avoid it. They are simply the shape of the deal.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants their inbox handled with privacy as the default rather than an add-on, and who is willing to spend an afternoon moving their mail across. If that describes you, the free download is an easy way to find out whether the arrangement suits how you actually use email.

What's new in version 7.11.10

Multiple fixes and performance improvements.