this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Protonmail

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There is now an official Protonmail Community at [email protected]

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Is the Android Protonmail app on F-Droid safe? Protonmail is not available on F-Droid and I would like to get it on F-Droid to receive automated updates.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with you. It's so weird that they host their VPN app on F-Droid but not their email app. It seems like it wouldn't take too much effort on their part to add Proton Mail to F-Droid.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember reading a discussion somowhere and it seems they won't add ProtonMail app to the F-Droid as it relies on Google Play services for push notifications.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If that's the case, it makes me wonder why they designed it this way. Their main selling point is privacy, yet they are so closely aligned with Google's services? Seems very questionable, especially since other email clients such as K-9 provide notifications just fine on Android.

This is the sort of thing that gives me second thoughts as a paid subscriber about using Proton's services at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Honestly I don't know, but this is the reason that I passed on the Proton when I wanted go for paid tier and I decided to go with Tutanota instead, as they have all components of their apps open source, as far as I am aware.

There's the one con that they don't allow to use any 3rd party email apps, but from what I have heard, ProtonMail Bridge is also not that great of a solution.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On android there is a tradeoff, either you use googles notification services, or running your own, which will cause battery to die faster. They decided it'n not worth it, and they also don't want to release it without notifications at all, as it seems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Weird since they apparently thought it was worth it for their VPN app, but not their email client.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

VPN app doesn't have to poll server for incoming messages. And, anyway, it is expected to drain your battery when connected