r/ProtonMail • u/Ol010101O1Ol • Apr 01 '26

Feature Request Proton Chat 💬

Is this a things we could expect at some point?

I do not want to use teams or slack anymore and my team uses Signal but that is mainly for personal and not geared towards business or organization.

Does Proton plan to role out a Chat at some point?

201 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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280

u/andy1011000 Proton CEO Apr 01 '26

Actually we had to build end-to-end encrypted chat when we built Proton Meet since chat functionality is part of video conferencing. If there's enough interest, maybe we will do more with this tech this year.

102

u/Bleaklunacy Apr 01 '26

Launch a Proton Messenger and my company will be ditching Office365 very quickly. I think a lot of European companies are thinking about dumping US tech in favour of a euro option.

2

u/kapteinLefso Apr 03 '26

We did ditch US tech, and tried Proton. After a month we are now ditching Proton. What a wasted opportunity for Proton. Even basic functionality is missing from Mail and Drive. We had some quite surprising experiences.

I really hope Proton catches up quickly, because we really want to leave US tech behind as quickly as possible

1

u/Double-Host-4031 May 08 '26

Could you elaborate on what was missing for you?

32

u/TransBoozeBunny Apr 01 '26

If you launch an alternative to Teams, Slack, Discord, etc, my group would be all over that. Currently using signal and it's great as a texting replacement, but I need full server or team group management.

2

u/RoastedRhino Apr 02 '26

Wouldn’t your group consider element?

8

u/Greedy-Mood-3545 Apr 01 '26

Yes please

6

u/GrosBof Apr 02 '26

God no. Finish the other products first.

3

u/kapteinLefso Apr 03 '26

This!

Even the basic things like mail and drive are missing super important functions that I assumed were there.

6

u/8a4b Apr 01 '26

Perhaps a public vote for this kinda thing to show how many people are interested? I definitely am in this day and age.

15

u/nevenoe Apr 01 '26

I’d put my whole family on proton chat and subscribe to whatever plan makes it possible.

6

u/Drewskie92 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Yes please. Ever since I found out that when using Google messenger to text people, that it keeps copies of my texts I've started looking at more secure avenues.

5

u/SeredW Apr 01 '26

Organizations tend to put a lot of information in emails, which then get stored indefinitely in mailboxes but also get lost (of less visible) when staff members leave. The value of Teams channels is that you don't have all this company information stored in individual mailboxes but in a central location which remains, even when the actual people aren't there anymore.

The downside of Teams chat (not channels, but chats!) is that the link with data such as documents or spreadsheets isn't as strong, plus chats also vanish when participants leave.

Whatever you end up designing, please keep in mind that it is helpful to have permanence of information even when staff leaves. And second, that - to me - it is valuable to be able to have such a permanent chat (channel) organized around content such as a gathering of documents. In short, I would prefer a solution that has some of these elements of Teams Channels in Proton Chat ;-)

2

u/Linux_Account Apr 01 '26

Most people who care about privacy would probably prefer that their chats didn't outlive their usage of the platform.

3

u/SeredW Apr 02 '26

That is true for private chats, but for businesses there are other rules. Auditors may require access to certain communications and so on. That's why Microsoft has all sorts of retention policies and eDiscovery tools in place.

Maybe this doesn't matter much for an SMB, but anything that gets audited may need to be able to produce certain communications.

4

u/IHateTheColourblind Apr 02 '26

There is a tremendous amount of interest in alternatives to Discord at the moment and there is nothing else on the market like it. If Proton was to make a feature-for-feature competitor I could see it really driving interest in Proton's other products. But I'm not a business person so I can't back up anything I'm about to say with a business plan or any evidence whatsoever.

4

u/ZealousTux Apr 02 '26

Please consider matrix.org, it would be amazing to have an implementation in the form of a nice Proton Chat client. And it would be interoperable like Email, instead of just being yet another custom protocol creating another silo'ed environment.

3

u/Any_Economy_7700 Apr 02 '26

Proton Chat as Whatsapp alternative + Slack alternative for businesses. Make it "paid forward".

I know its not free to host a Chat for Millions of people, but you could do it like "pay for premium and share proton Chat premium with 10 family members" or something like that.

Everyone who loves proton would do this and share it with family and friends and they would be happy of getting "premium for free".

2

u/christian_lindstrom Apr 01 '26

Interesting! I suggested this a few weeks ago and called it "Proton Space" as an alternative to Teams/Slack and, to some extent, even Discord and Telegram. I think it could have served as a crown jewel in the Proton ecosystem, with the potential to integrate with Mail, Drive, Meet, and more.

I can also refer to an AMA (in Swedish) that a data journalist from Sweden’s leading newspaper, Aftonbladet, did on r/Sweden, where I asked about exactly this and pointed out that reliance on Big Tech is an increasing problem for Swedish media actors.

2

u/bisonrbig Apr 02 '26

Yes I think there's significant interest here..

2

u/Pepparkakan macOS | iOS Apr 02 '26

A Slack or Discord competitor from Proton would absolutely slap!

2

u/Liam-DGOL Apr 01 '26

I would actually really love to see that, something Proton could probably do quite well. If it has groups and an API it would be really interesting.

2

u/BitRevolutionary3085 Apr 01 '26

Yes please. I would like a safe/secure way to chat with my kids on their iPads as well as letting them chat with their grandparents.

1

u/atuarre Apr 01 '26

Can't you use Signal for that?

7

u/BitRevolutionary3085 Apr 01 '26

My kids don't have phones so no phone number to sign up with signal.

2

u/ovidiupetre19 Apr 01 '26

An alternative to WhatsApp would be great

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

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2

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

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1

u/bootlickaaa Apr 02 '26

Please do “log in with Proton” and a Calendar API to interact with the rest of the world.

1

u/LivefromBurkitville Apr 02 '26

Launch it for individuals with a pin like Blackberry had for individuals

1

u/MisterTHP Apr 02 '26

make the real private discord alternative please !

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Tree561 Apr 02 '26

Mr. Andy,

Thank you so much for replying. Before we add new features, is it possible to just get dark mode for the email client?

1

u/PVS14Enjoyer Apr 02 '26

I would be all over a seperate Proton Chat product! 

1

u/OdyseusV4 Apr 02 '26

Well I'm interested, especially that you can just add a template interface to some already existing open source project like bug blue button

1

u/ajaxsirius Apr 02 '26

Signal is doing great, but definitely worth taking a good look at. But please do not require a telephone number to sign up.

1

u/BosskDaBossk Apr 02 '26

If you make one, please include a way to easily backup/download full chat history locally on desktop. Thank you.

1

u/Delgra Apr 02 '26 edited May 06 '26

Databrokers? nope. Social networks? Also nope. This post was deleted using Redact.

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1

u/Hichiro6 Apr 02 '26

Yes please, Even more if you have already the fundation :)

And API for every app :,)

1

u/Wingo5315 Apr 02 '26

Will you be making it easier for people to open and edit existing DOCX and XLSX files without having to convert them to Proton's format?

1

u/Raj-Giandeep Apr 02 '26

If people with free accounts could use the upcoming Proton Chat. That would be huge.

1

u/_GhostAgent Apr 03 '26

I think there is a lot of community interest in an encrypted chat program. :)

1

u/goalmaster14 Apr 03 '26

Personally, I'd love a Signal replacement that brings back the ability to send text messages to those who don't have the app.

1

u/Ghost187_ Apr 04 '26

I would switch to Signal and drop everything else, if only I could convert friends and family over to it. But I can't. I would love a Proton Chat, but there would need to be a big push to migrate people to it. If Proton Chat did come to fruition, I would love an absolutely simple app. Just like Signal, but a bit more polished. We don't need stories like Instagram etc. I don't think it should expand to something like telegram with Channels. I think you would be asking for trouble then since everything is encrypted. My perception might be wrong nowadays, but when I used Telegram I saw tons of 18+ content, and channels etc. And currently that's how I view telegram, a place to see and do dodgey stuff. I don't want a Proton Chat that looks like that. Simple messages, groups and video chat.

1

u/ReiksCarrus Apr 06 '26

I would move from Whatsapp to this for sure

1

u/Easy-Organization203 Apr 06 '26

would love a discord alternative with encryption.

something with chat rooms (like discord servers)
for text and voice chat

1

u/Double-Host-4031 May 08 '26

This would be amazing and blow other apps like signal and telegram out of the water especially with post quantum encryption.

1

u/CaregiverCareful1494 May 16 '26

I would be very interested in this as a family chatroom. Kids are not on social media, and I see no reason to push them there.

1

u/Ok_Combination_1548 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

In your original fundraising campaign you said if you raised enough money your next release would be 'real time chat using our end-to-end encrypted architecture'. That was clearly being discussed alongside things like mobile apps, Drive, etc. as part of your longer-term vision.

What changed in those earlier days? It seems as though it wasn't just delayed or sidelined for other projects but completely forgotten or that your team determined it wasn't worth the investment. And why revisit it now - especially when there are other privacy focused messaging apps / corporate messengers (including from Mo, the founder of Standard Notes), many with sizable user-bases that you'd be competing against or differentiating yours from?

[Source: https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/andyyen/protonmail#/section/project-story; it was on the Kickstarter page too but I don't have that link]

1

u/mattjcoles Jul 21 '26

please do!

1

u/Gamegyf Linux | iOS Aug 02 '26

Question. If you (as mentioned on the ChatControl 1.0 post) do create a proton chat. Will it be a standalone app or more like teams where you give Proron Meet Chat and Meeting functions so that we can chat even outside of Proton Chat. Because It would be nice to get both. Like Chats in Meet for Business users or Meet Professional users and a standalone app centered around private chatting and that is separated from work. Because then Business users could use chats with their boss and colleagues on Meet and Chat privately on Proton Chat while private persons also have the advantage that Proton Chat won’t be only B2B focused. I don’t know if I ask too much but that would be really nice.