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I wanted to like PM and became a visionary subscriber years ago. But I left after painfully discovering that their web client (which was the only option at tha

by blunte 5y ago

I wanted to like PM and became a visionary subscriber years ago. But I left after painfully discovering that their web client (which was the only option at that time) was just not built for busy inboxes. Even today, many of the original pain points exist. The UI is still clunky, and paging through the inbox is really terrible. Now they will promote their bridge to allow you to use Outlook or whatever, but that's not a solution for some of us. I assume their need for revenue is what drives the features-before-improvements approach, but I know it is costing them some potential customers. Nowadays I only use PM for special occasions, such as needing a temporary private email conversation with someone (who also sets up a new temp PM account). I have found Tutanota to be much better in terms of usability. I can't speak for their security quality compared to PM, but honestly, unless you're only communicating with other local users, your emails are unencrypted at the other end. So the whole encryption topic is moot in many cases.

tomrod 5y ago
They have a mobile app that works great on Android. What am I missing?
- rovr138 5y ago
  Someone that wants to use their email on a computer.
  - beermonster 5y ago
    You can access PM on a computer from either a) web UI b) bridge
    - rovr138 5y ago
      Did you read the original comment? The whole complaint above is about the web UI and mentions that the bridge isn't an option/solution for everyone.
- diogenesjunior 5y ago
  >on Android
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- tmccrary55 5y ago
  I wish I could use 2FA and not have to enter a code every time I open the app. That and the total lack of useful search sent me back to big G.
  - cptskippy 5y ago
    > the total lack of useful search sent me back to big G. Just how bad is the search? Google's Gmail search is hot garbage. I have 1 starred email with the subject "benefits info" that contains some info I reference semi regularly. I can't search and find it, even if I copy the subject and paste it into search. My partner has similar issues, the search is mostly useless. * Clarification: it's not that my search results are polluted other emails, that specific email does not show up at all in the results.
    - CodeGlitch 5y ago
      Since the data is encrypted at rest, then search within Proton is basically nerfed. It does work, but it's slow as I imagine it's having to download each email to search within it locally. Not sure if there's a good solution for that problem. I still use Proton because I value my privacy and can live with slow searches.
      - contravariant 5y ago
        You just need to encrypt the search index alongside the emails. There are databases that have solved this problem. The hacker's solution would be to put sqlite inside a truecrypt volume I suppose. Edit: mount it over sshfs if you need end-to-end encryption. And pray that truecrypt and sqlite have optimized their read/write operations well enough.
  - Forbo 5y ago
    I have 2FA and only need to enter it when I first sign in on a fresh device. This is on both the web UI and the Android app.
    - 5y ago
- samhh 5y ago
  The unread count in the notification doesn't update if you view your emails not in the mobile app.
blunte 5y ago
I would edit my parent post if I could. I have just logged into ProtonMail web app after a few months of not using it, and it seems they have made a big upgrade. I cannot say if it solves all of my previous complaints, but it certainly has improved.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  I use ProtonMail and ProtonVPN daily and the upgrade (which came about two months ago) is pretty significant. Namely one of my big complaints was that in the previous version your sessions weren’t preserved and you were always having to log back in. The client still needs some performance enhancements but is otherwise a pretty significant improvement over the old UI. The packages are pretty good value IMO. For something like 100 euros per year you get secure email, two custom domains, and VPN. For someone who just needs exactly that for their personal websites and daily driver usage it’s great.
Avamander 5y ago
I have the same feeling. I simply can not do it with simply just folders and manual sorting, I have become dependant on automatic categorization like Google does.

by blunte 5y ago

tomrod 5y ago

They have a mobile app that works great on Android. What am I missing?

rovr138 5y ago
Someone that wants to use their email on a computer.
- beermonster 5y ago
  You can access PM on a computer from either a) web UI b) bridge
  - rovr138 5y ago
    Did you read the original comment? The whole complaint above is about the web UI and mentions that the bridge isn't an option/solution for everyone.
diogenesjunior 5y ago
>on Android
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
tmccrary55 5y ago
I wish I could use 2FA and not have to enter a code every time I open the app. That and the total lack of useful search sent me back to big G.
- cptskippy 5y ago
  > the total lack of useful search sent me back to big G. Just how bad is the search? Google's Gmail search is hot garbage. I have 1 starred email with the subject "benefits info" that contains some info I reference semi regularly. I can't search and find it, even if I copy the subject and paste it into search. My partner has similar issues, the search is mostly useless. * Clarification: it's not that my search results are polluted other emails, that specific email does not show up at all in the results.
  - CodeGlitch 5y ago
    Since the data is encrypted at rest, then search within Proton is basically nerfed. It does work, but it's slow as I imagine it's having to download each email to search within it locally. Not sure if there's a good solution for that problem. I still use Proton because I value my privacy and can live with slow searches.
    - contravariant 5y ago
      You just need to encrypt the search index alongside the emails. There are databases that have solved this problem. The hacker's solution would be to put sqlite inside a truecrypt volume I suppose. Edit: mount it over sshfs if you need end-to-end encryption. And pray that truecrypt and sqlite have optimized their read/write operations well enough.
- Forbo 5y ago
  I have 2FA and only need to enter it when I first sign in on a fresh device. This is on both the web UI and the Android app.
  - 5y ago
samhh 5y ago
The unread count in the notification doesn't update if you view your emails not in the mobile app.

blunte 5y ago

I would edit my parent post if I could. I have just logged into ProtonMail web app after a few months of not using it, and it seems they have made a big upgrade. I cannot say if it solves all of my previous complaints, but it certainly has improved.

SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
I use ProtonMail and ProtonVPN daily and the upgrade (which came about two months ago) is pretty significant. Namely one of my big complaints was that in the previous version your sessions weren’t preserved and you were always having to log back in. The client still needs some performance enhancements but is otherwise a pretty significant improvement over the old UI. The packages are pretty good value IMO. For something like 100 euros per year you get secure email, two custom domains, and VPN. For someone who just needs exactly that for their personal websites and daily driver usage it’s great.

Avamander 5y ago

I have the same feeling. I simply can not do it with simply just folders and manual sorting, I have become dependant on automatic categorization like Google does.