Proton, the Swiss firm behind a set of privacy-focused merchandise together with electronic mail, has teased a reasonably substantial improve for its flagship Proton Mail and calendar providers.

Though Proton has expanded into cloud storage and VPNs by means of the years, encrypted electronic mail stays Proton’s bread and butter — and that’s arguably probably the most fascinating aspect of its newest reveal.

Certainly, whereas Proton typically positions itself as the antithesis of Google, from a privateness perspective not less than, the corporate has revealed a busy roadmap for the approaching months that may usher in a swathe of recent options which can be just a bit harking back to Gmail. And that’s not a nasty factor.

On schedule

Google has gone to nice lengths to make its ecosystem of merchandise as sticky as potential, and for probably the most half it has labored, with Gmail among the many most widely-used electronic mail providers on Earth.

From a shopper perspective, Gmail presents nice utility, together with an electronic mail categorization system that routinely teams inbound emails by kind beneath separate tabs, serving to customers discover particular sorts of emails (e.g. “social” or “promotions”). Whereas this method might not be to everybody’s liking, and customers can opt-out, it represents one of many many guarantees that Google makes to maintain customers coming again: “we’ll make your life simpler,” is the overall thought.

With that in thoughts, Proton Mail sooner or later will supply comparable categorization performance. This will likely elevate some questions over how Proton will obtain this with out compromising customers’ information privateness, in that categorization is definitely depending on scanning content material, however the firm stated that it’s working to implement this in a “absolutely non-public approach” utilizing the sender class. Taking this at Proton’s phrase, this might show to be a preferred characteristic, one which will assist easy the trail for these trying to soar ship from Gmail.

Elsewhere, Gmail has supplied message-scheduling for just a few years already, permitting customers to configure emails to ship at a selected time and date, fairly presumably once they’re quick asleep. Once more, that is one thing that Proton can be now engaged on, bringing it nearer to characteristic parity with Gmail.

Proton Mail: Schedule ship Picture Credit: Proton

Different new options developing embody electronic mail reminders, whereby customers can set an alert to remind themselves to reply at a later time, whereas they can even be capable of “snooze” emails which serves an analogous objective. That is just like a characteristic that Gmail has supplied since 2018.

And one thing extra in step with Proton’s deal with privateness, the corporate stated that it is going to be including new options to dam electronic mail monitoring, in order that corporations or dangerous actors can’t know when an electronic mail was opened, thus rendering the information unusable.

Proton Mail: E mail monitoring safety Picture Credit: Proton

Because it stands, looking out by means of emails in Proton Mail has its limitations. For these on the internet, message content material search is reserved for premium paid customers, however on cell it’s not likely an choice in any respect past metadata resembling the topic line. Sooner or later, Proton stated that it’s increasing full message search to is cell apps, with emails downloaded to a person’s system to allow them to use key phrases to go looking message content material by way of a locally-stored index.

It’s a date

Upcoming adjustments aren’t restricted to Proton Mail although. The corporate is gearing as much as launch a local Calendar app for iPhone within the subsequent few weeks, almost a 12 months after it arrived on Android. On prime of that, it’s going to even be rolling out a brand new 3-day and 7-day view (just like Google Calendar) throughout the Proton Calendar app, whereas there can even be a “full-agenda” view that shows a day’s deliberate actions in a chronological checklist replete with infinite-scrolling.

Lastly, Proton can even permit customers to create to-do lists and rework duties into reminders that pop-up contained in the Calendar app.

Proton Calendar: Views Picture Credit: Proton

Integrations

As Proton continues to increase its product lineup, with its Proton Drive cloud storage service lately present beta on the internet, the corporate is now planning to roll out deeper integrations throughout its product suite. For instance, electronic mail attachments that exceed Proton Mail’s 25MB restrict shall be routinely uploaded to Proton Drive, with the recipient in a position to entry the file by means of a safe hyperlink — once more, that is one thing that Google has supplied since 2013.

And in April this 12 months, Proton acquired electronic mail alias service SimpleLogin, a platform that enables customers to protect their actual electronic mail tackle when signing up for on-line providers. Proton stated that it plans to construct tighter integrations between SimpleLogin’s electronic mail aliases and Proton Mail.

Lastly, Proton additionally revealed that it’s brining single sign-on (SSO) to cell, which means that customers of Proton’s varied apps will solely must register as soon as to entry every particular person service — that is at present out there, however solely by means of an online browser.

By way of timescales, Proton isn’t divulging any particular dates for something but, although it did say that Proton Mail’s email-scheduling and email-tracking blocker shall be arriving throughout the subsequent month, as will the brand new iPhone Calendar app and the 3-day and 7-day Calendar views.

Every thing else shall be touchdown at varied intervals all through 2023.