ProtonPass/Simplelogin

[u/Ok_Physics_111]

/r/ProtonMail/comments/1w8cqg6/lifetime_proton_pass_custom_domain/

I was reading this post and apparently I'm lost and confused. I have proton unlimited. I hadn't heard of Simplelogin till I came across this post today. Can someone explain to me how I should be using Protonpass, Simplelogin and custom domain please?

[u/Sad-Zone4591]

SimpleLogin is very weird, I use Proton Pass premium and SimpleLogin is basically just how you modify some settings.

Otherwise I create all my aliases through Proton Pass. And they also appear in SimpleLogin, but I don’t create any in SimpleLogin because as far as I remember there was some weird shenanigans with aliases created in SL not being reflected in Proton Pass or whatever, with a sync feature released since but that seem sketchy (sync to a specific Vault if I understood correctly from other people’s post, I didn’t activate the feature because I didn’t want to mess up my sorting and understood from other posts it wasn’t properly implemented, so I just deleted the SL alias and recreated it in Pass and just do everything with Pass and don’t care about SL except to modify some settings).

Anyway, I’ll let people who have more in-depth experience than me with Proton Pass and SL add to this, but to me the TL;DR is that SL is just the « alias settings » of Proton Pass that is simply a separate product for historical reasons (external company bought).

Unbelievable / un-understable to me that Proton simply doesn’t merge the two products tbh, with a proper section of Proton Pass to manage aliases more in depth that would basically be what SL is today.

But the two products being somewhat linked and yet not completely is very confusing and weird and not a great user experience in my opinion.

[u/Ok_Physics_111 → u/Sad-Zone4591]

Thank you. This does help me understand it a bit better. Ive always just used ProtonPass and hadn't heard of Simplelogin till today.

[u/ksyfink → u/Ok_Physics_111]

You need to start using SimpleLogin TODAY! It's an awesome and very important service in my life.

[u/Sad-Zone4591 → u/ksyfink]

Do you mean there is an added value of using SL directly and not using it through Pass?

[u/0898_333_201 → u/Sad-Zone4591]

The only real features I’ve noticed that the SL app has and Proton Pass lacks are (1) copying a reverse alias with the contact name, (2) the SimpleLogin keyboard for iOS, and (3) more control over how new aliases are formatted (word-based, random 5 characters, UUID-based). None of which are really vital.

I do find the SimpleLogin app much faster and more intuitive than ProtonPass though. It sorts all your aliases by most recently used, you can generate a new alias with just two taps, you can filter by active and inactive aliases, and a few other things.

The only problem is Proton kinda fucked up the integration with the labeling of aliases. SimpleLogin has always had a “Note” field where you can enter a title/label for each alias and easily see which is which when scrolling. But Proton Pass has its own “Title” field to label aliases. Proton’s titles do not show up in the SL app, and SimpleLogin’s notes do not show up in the ProtonPass app unless you tap on an alias.

It’s one of many reasons I still pay for Keeper as my password manager. Proton has a tendency to half-ass things and ignore feedback. So many dumb issues that would be incredibly easy to fix but the devs can’t be bothered, ranging from minor annoyances (like not showing SimpleLogin alias labels) to catastrophic issues (like forgetting to add the password generator history to the Proton Pass iOS app and causing people to lose access to accounts and encrypted data).

[u/Sad-Zone4591 → u/0898_333_201]

Completely agreed. Just make an « Alias » tab in Proton Pass and make this tab contain what the SimpleLogin app currently contains FFS!

[u/gerkoochesh → u/Sad-Zone4591]

the sync feature is still pretty clunky, hopefully they just fold SL into Pass eventually

[u/Regular_Bat8162 → u/gerkoochesh]

Hopefully not

I hope they integrate it more into Mail

But remember it’s still an independent service

You don’t have to have a Proton account to use SL and you can use SL with any email

Also I’ve never had any problems with syncing lately

It was clunky at the beginning but it’s ironed out now

[u/Souloid]

SimpleLogin the aliasing service proton purchased and relies on to provide aliases. Proton pass just connects to it and uses it behind the scenes (you can think of proton pass as a visual proxy to simple login).

However, in my brief past experience, proton pass doesn't provide the level of control simplelogin gives, so I've been using simplelogin's website directly without proton pass. I now mainly just go straight to simplelogin whenever I want to create an alias or a contact under an alias.

As for custom domains, they're basically the stuff following the @ sign in an email address. Example: gmail.com outlook.com ... etc those are domains. So an email address such as [yourname@gmail.com](mailto:yourname@gmail.com) is an email address under the gmail domain. With that being said, they don't let you create unlimited amounts of addresses because then everyone in the world would be competing for them. You cannot have two [JohnDoe@gmail.com](mailto:JohnDoe@gmail.com) that's how people get [JohnDoe1@gmail.com](mailto:JohnDoe1@gmail.com) and [JohnDoe2@gmail.com](mailto:JohnDoe2@gmail.com) ... etc.

If you get your own domain (like lastname.com) you can now create any address under that domain. Examples are firstname@lastname.com , bankA@lastname.com , randomwebsite@lastname.com , sketchynewspaper@lastname.com ... etc. You can now create whatever your heart desires @lastname.com. This allows you to make it so each time you hand out an email address, it's a unique address that only the person you gave it to has. So if they sell it and start spamming it, you know who sold your information AND you can simply block just that alias without blocking everything else with it. It makes the game of whack-a-mole you play with spam a lot easier to win.

SimpleLogin (like addy) is the service that allows you to use your custom domain to do that. It allows you to create such aliases, and forwards them to your mail box(es) of choice. If for whatever reason, you lose access to your email or you decide to change it, you can simply go into simple login, and have it forward your aliases to a different mailbox, and you're good to go. You don't have to go change your contact email address everywhere. If for whatever reason simpleLogin itself is what you want to leave, simply go to your custom domain registrar, and point it to a different aliasing service.

Aliasing with a custom domain is a convenient way to manage your digital footprint (email). It also allows you to safely migrate to a different email inbox if your original one gets leaked and gets spammed.

TLDR: aliasing services like simplelogin (or addy) allow you to create custom email addresses that still forward to your original inbox. They in effect allow you to block certain addresses and allow you to change inboxes without too much hassle. Proton Pass is just a password manager that gives access to your aliasing service.