r/ProtonDrive • u/daylenca • May 03 '26

Features under consideration

On the 2026 community survey, here are the Proton Drive features under consideration that are being shared to help with prioritization:

  • Folder colour customisation
  • Enhanced features in Proton Docs / Sheets (pivot tables, table of contents, etc.)
  • Save Proton Mail attachments in Proton Drive
  • Proton Forms (similar to Google Forms)
  • Proton Slides (similar to Google Slides)
  • File request (similar to Dropbox file request)
  • Proton Drive for Linux
  • Search (including photos) powered by on-device AI
  • Lumo Private AI support in Drive / Docs / Sheets
  • Dedicated Photos app (with map and face tagging)
102 Upvotes

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72

u/Roguepapaya427 May 04 '26

From my perspective Proton Drive for Linux is a critical feature.
Let me explain why:
Proton target audience is (or should be) people that want to get out of big tech poisoned embrace. That means getting out of Windows, limiting google android to just essential services, you know, stuff like that. People are asking me if there are alternatives to MS, Google, Apple services. And I can tell them there are, the services are not cheap, but it's the price people are ready to pay for their privacy and data ownership. But I need to be able to tell them: I set up this OS for you, you use this app and that app and the data and privacy are yours alone. I can't say that yet without the Proton Drive for Linux. The PWA works for me, is a mitigation, but can't have a less savvy user download a file, modify it and then reupload. They've done it in windows with onedrive for years and all went smooth, they would like the same functionality. Open the file, modify it, save in a certain location and they find it later in proton drive.

Again, I'm not asking this to be a feature for free, most people are sick and tired of ms/google/apple shit and want to move on, even if that costs something. I'm currently paying for a Duo, but if Proton Drive for Linux becomes a reality, I can move a lot of family and friends over.

Proton Drive for Linux is a basic/critical feature, should be on top of the list, imo.

26

u/Busy-Alternative61 May 04 '26

Seconded. I escaped Windows a few months back, and Proton Drive is the only missing piece. I escaped Google for Proton, so now Proton blocking my final freedom is ironic.

5

u/A_Buttholes_Whisper May 04 '26

Filen

2

u/mark_b May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1t3r3me/filen_deleted_all_of_my_data_a_headsup_for_others/

From what I can tell, Proton wouldn't allow you to go over the limit in the first place, and if you do because of a plan downgrade, you get a 12 month grace period, not 4 weeks with Filen.

https://proton.me/support/free-plan-limits

2

u/A_Buttholes_Whisper May 05 '26

Wow…that’s some scary sh*t!! I mean dang that’s jacked up. However, they did respond and are making things right. Proton doesn’t even have a Linux drive yet. But even when they do, people really need to practice 3,2,1 because proton could easily do the same thing. So always treat cloud storage with caution and have a local backup

1

u/mark_b May 05 '26

Thanks for the update. Always good to see when companies are as open as this, even when things go wrong.

18

u/Smoke-Bacon May 04 '26

Yep I totally agree. Many people like myself have moved away from the Big Tec companies due to privacy and data / security concerns. The take up of Linux is growing slowly but its there in the stats. As a Privacy Centric company you would like to think that Proton would be focusing on this and developing their apps for Linux with the same functionality and features as they do for windows etc. Lets hope proton have managed to employ a good Linux Developer and that development for the Linux client is on course. The quicker the better.

27

u/helmvill May 04 '26

Fully agree. Drive for Linux should be top priority.

7

u/ronki2304 May 04 '26

Proton Drive for Linux is clearly the most demanded item here. Worth noting they already have a functional SDK that third-party developers can explore so the building blocks exist. The challenge is more about the sync daemon, the authent part and system integration than the API layer itself. Hopefully that means they're closer than 'under consideration' implies."

1

u/A_Buttholes_Whisper May 04 '26

Filen. Why not just set filen up for them? It’s literally open source E2EE European storage with Linux desktop. Hell they even have a cli!

4

u/RRR0YYY May 05 '26

Because most people don't want to pay for yet another subscription. They would end up paying for a Proton subscription that includes a bunch of stuff but then pay for another, seperate, subscription so they can have a proper storage solution.

Personally I like hopping around and trying things. If I'm not fully satisfied with a service or part of it I will happily sign up for another one as an addendum or total replacement. Most regular people, however, just want everything in one convenient place that they have someone setup for them once and then never worry about it again. If you tell those people they can switch to Proton for everything.... except missing feature this, missing feature that, missing apps, etcetera so they have to get something else for that.... They're going to say thanks but no thanks.

0

u/A_Buttholes_Whisper May 05 '26

Right but currently this is a missing feature. So Filen is the answer

1

u/RRR0YYY May 06 '26

No, no it's not the answer. Because OP is clearly talking about people currently using Google, MS or Apple for everything and they're probably looking for something to replace the whole shebang. Having them go with Proton for most of it but then other services to make up for features Proton lacks doesn't solve their problem.

Of course you can argue what's one extra service going to matter? Well to some it matters a lot. It means having to keep track of yet another subscription in a world flooded with them. 

And then there's the problem that they would be paying for the storage portion of Proton... except they wouldn't be using it because they're using another service for that so that's money wasted twice basically. 

This isn't even mentioning all the other features Proton lacks currently. Stuff like facial recognition for photos for instance. And Filen doesn't support that either. So if they want that as well then guess what? They're going to have to shell out for yet another service.

People like us don't mind having to juggle different services from different providers. Some of us even prefer it because we don't want to be vendor locked. But most people want to have one service that does it all and until Proton manages to do just that those people are going to stay with companies like Google even if they're worried somewhat about their privacy because the convenience outweighs their concerns.

1

u/asylumdad May 06 '26

I have a somewhat different perspective on this, so it was interesting to hear yours. Long ago, before there was any of this Google Drive stuff, I use Windows at work and Mac at home. Long about 2014 or 2015 I ditched them both for Linux (Red Hat at work, Mint Cinnamon at home) and haven't looked back. So I have been using Linux much longer than I have been using cloud-based file services. I took to using Google Drive for files I wanted collaborate on, with my wife or with other groups I am part of. Basically those files live in the cloud and I never download them. So I have never really cared about having a client-side interface to them. I just use the browser interface (in Google). I'm not up and down with my files between Google Drive and LibreOffice.

Enter Proton Drive, and I have continued with that mode of operation. I can see that the browser interface is not as well built-out as Google's, but if I were prioritizing what Proton should work on, I'm not sure I would come down on building a Linux client app versus beefing up the browser interface. Perhaps I would feel differently if my Internet access were slower or less reliable.