Sorry guys, I guess this is just a rant/venting post.
I've been a long proton user, for almost 8 years now. And still. Still can't use it as my main app. Especially for phone use. And the more I'm trying to get away from Google, the more painfully clear this is becoming. And the main reasons for this are stupid.
There's long standing requests for the app to actually work offline. They recently posted a few updates with some redesign that attempt to make it work slightly better offline. Because the previous behavior was outright terrible for any mobile app. Problem is, while there's improvements, it's still a million years away from being a reliable email app. I guess I'm going to put my main pet peeves here, for anyone either considering buying in, or maybe perhaps someone knowing a workaround.
-Email contents continue to being unsearchable (search only works on email subject). They kinda sorted this on the desktop browser version. Kinda. You can optionally download a large cache with your mailbox within the browser's storage permission for the proton page, and you can actually search messages by their contents in their bodies. This is not an option at all on the app. And the mobile browser version doesn't offer it either. So if you're not next to your computer, Proton in your phone is useless to find any email.
-Offline behavior is still bad. While it seems to download a cache of emails, there's no way to know if an specific email is available offline or not, and it's just the email subject with nothing else. This only becomes obvious once you are offline and try to open its contents (while...travelling? Boarding a plane? Good luck in those moments if you don't have data, and preferably a computer too). -Offline behavior follow-up: Email sending stays in the 'sent' folder. No way to know if an email is actively being sent/uploaded to the server, or it's actually an already sent message. Unless you turn offline and find out the bad way.
-The app doesn't behave like a normal Android provider for neither contacts, emails or calendar events. THat means, if you try to sync Proton Calendar events to your watch, you're SOL. I don't believe Proton email offers itself if you tap on an .eml file, and definitely you can't show your proton contacts in any other app, or easily share contacts from other apps to Proton. And while yes, there can be strong arguments to be made about how Google handles privacy in Android, there's people using GrapheneOS that don't use Google at all, just Android. This is an Android feature, not a Google feature. And the option should be given to the user to choose to sync their data.
Sorry for the rant/venting post. Any thoughts on this? Any possible solutions? Any roadmaps for when are these going to be addressed?
Yes. They need to stop introducing new products that people don't want and focus instead on the fundamentals, like (well, at least for the Linux desktop, don't know about the other platforms) having contact photos that display, having the ability to sort contacts alphabetically by last name, even just being able to minimize the left-hand toolbar would be nice so I can see more of the message pane, but no. Honestly kind of waiting to see how Thundermail will turn out at this point. Proton is ok, but not great in my estimation.
I started using Linux back in April and heard about their lack of Linux support. I honestly thought it was just the Reddit crowd complaining for the sake of complaining. I really didn't think it would be so bad.
This is what didn't sit right with me when looking at Google alternatives, and one of the reasons why I went with Tuta instead.
Turns out Tuta is even worse, but never mind that. 🙃
I'm a former Tuta user; JOOC, what issues are you having with them?
Their mobile app feels like it's a wrapped web app, and their web app feels like it's made for a tablet. (It's an identical app.)
I was also once locked out of my account for some reason that was very stupid. I couldn't log in for some reason, and I think I had to upgrade the app or something in order for it to let me back in? I dunno. I feel like the tech is solid underneath, perhaps, but the user facing stuff is not great at all.
Also the lack of integration. Like if I receive a calendar invite in my inbox, I'd want that to be simple to add to my calendar etc.
I just don't feel like it's a complete offering, in both senses of the word. It feels incomplete, and unfinished.
What made you a former user rather than a current user, btw?
Being lazy and reposting an earlier comment of mine:
Ah okay, I see, thanks.
One of the reasons I went with Tuta over Proton was actually their storage per dollar ratio. They don't have a Drive kind of feature yet, but more email storage per price than Proton.
But IMO neither works as a Gmail replacement for me yet, personally. I wish they did.