Proton Mail is a great email option for the privacy-minded user, but you have to set up a bridge if you want to access your mail on a desktop app. Now, Proton has announced that it's beginning to roll out its Proton Mail desktop app which removes the need for an additional bridge. While it's not available for everyone just yet, Proton hopes to have it available for everyone very soon.

Proton Mail's new desktop client

As spotted by The Verge, Proton is beginning its gradual rollout for its mail client. The Proton Mail client brings in some welcome additions to the service, such as allowing people to access and draft their emails offline. Proton Mail will also support encrypted auto-forwarding of emails, as long as the sender and receiver are Proton users.

The desktop client also contains some useful new features that help develop it into a proper productivity suite. The biggest is a built-in Proton Calendar app, which lets you plan events and set up upcoming appointments from within the mail client. And, as you might expect, all the data in Proton Calendar is encrypted.

Proton Mail has been a staple service amongst the privacy-minded, as it uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to encrypt its emails. This places the encryption key in the hands of the users, not the company. Users can then email one another using encryption without worrying about the company breaking into and reading its contents.

Unfortunately, Proton Mail's desktop client isn't available to everyone just yet. Right now, only those who are subscribed to the legacy "Visionary" tier can access the desktop client. Fortunately, Proton is reopening subscriptions to the Visionary tier from today until January 3rd, 2024. And if you don't mind waiting, Proton hopes to release the Proton Mail client to everyone in early 2024.

If this is the first time you've heard of Proton, it's worth checking out their other products. For example, we named Proton VPN one of the best VPNs for booking cheap flights due to its low monthly cost.