Skip to main content

Want to encrypt your email? ProtonMail is finally out on iOS and Android

One Swiss company looks to capitalize on the current eruption of the encryption debate with a highly secure email app called ProtonMail. After a long beta period, the company is now officially opening registrations for its service and released the Android and iOS app for users who want a more secure email experience.

ProtonMail has been in beta ever since it was successfully funded through a wildly-popular Indiegogo campaign back in 2014 — it raised $550,377 from its $100,000 goal. The service was born almost as a direct result of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the many surveillance programs run by National Security Agency on American citizens. The company says that the email client was built by a group of scientists that met at CERN and MIT. ProtonMail has been in private beta for the past two years, with more than 1 million users participating.

Recommended Videos

“We are really the first to put to the test the idea of whether consumers are willing to pay for their privacy.”

The timing of the app launch was not coincidental, as ProtonMail hits app stores less than a week before the monumental court hearing, in which Apple will defend its decision to defy a court order that asked Apple to create a backdoor so the FBI can access the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. In ProtonMail’s blog post, the company says it opened public registration due to “recent challenges against encryption and privacy.”

“The best way to ensure that encryption and privacy rights are not encroached upon is to get the tools into the hands of the public as soon as possible and widely distributing them,” ProtonMail’s co-founder Andy Yen said in the blog post. “This way, we put the choice in the hands of the consumer, and not government regulators.”

Email with end-to-end encryption

What makes ProtonMail special is that its email features end-to-end encryption, meaning that governments, or the company itself, cannot gain access to its customer’s emails.

ProtonMail works best when you’re emailing other ProtonMail users — as those emails will automatically be secure. Thankfully, you can manually encrypt messages if the recipient is using another email client.

Another email client called Lavabit had strong encryption like what ProtonMail is offering, and it was championed by Snowden as a great service. However, it was shut down due to government requests for private user data from the NSA leaker.

When asked what steps ProtonMail will take to ensure it doesn’t meet the same demise as Lavabit, Yen told Digital Trends that since the company is Swiss-based, jurisdiction rests with Switzerland.

“Foreign governments can request data provided they go through the Swiss court system, which has more stringent privacy requirements,” Yen said. “Given the strength of Swiss privacy laws, it is highly unlikely to have a Lavabit situation here. The technology is also different in that we will be able to turn over a lot less useful data than Lavabit could.”

ProtonMail does face challenges

However, Switzerland isn’t averse to infringing on privacy — last year ProtonMail had to launch a protest against a domestic surveillance law. It collected more than 70,000 signatures, so that a public referendum in June would decide whether or not the law stays.

The company’s service also went offline for more than 24 hours due to a sustained DDoS attack last fall. The company paid the ransom that the attackers demanded, but the attack didn’t cease afterwards, according to The Guardian. No user data was affected.

Registration for ProtonMail is free, and the company gets revenue through donations and paid accounts. A free account gets you 500 MB of storage, 1 email address, 150 messages a day, 20 labels, and limited support. The ProtonMail Plus version costs 5 Euros a month, or 48 Euros a year, and the ProtonMail Visionary account costs 30 Euros a month, or 288 Euros a year.

“We are really the first to put to the test the idea of whether consumers are willing to pay for their privacy,” he said. “With our launch, we will be able to do the first large scale test of this and see what the conversion rate to paid is. I think the results in 1 or 2 months time will be very telling, and I’m sure a lot of the other big players in the email space will also be watching this carefully.”

The apps are free, and you can download them for iOS and Android. Yen says the company has been working on them for around two years, but they were first released in a closed beta last August.

Julian Chokkattu
Former Mobile and Wearables Editor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
3 big iOS 19 changes that I hope Apple reveals at WWDC 2025
iOS 19 sample logo.

We’re less than two days away from Apple’s big WWDC 2025 keynote, where the company will reveal new versions of each of its software platforms. One of the biggest changes this year is the expected shift from iOS 19 to iOS 26, with new versions of macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS also set to follow suit. We're also expecting to see the evolution of Apple Health, including a new AI doctor and Health subscription.

iOS 26, if it is to be named that, is expected to introduce one of the biggest evolutions in design for Apple software since the first iPhone was launched. Inspired by visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro, it’s expected to be a monumental redesign, but I hope that Apple also takes the time to make a few improvements.

Read more
iOS 26 rumored to go back to basics with four intriguing upgrades
An iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18, showing its home screen.

In just two days from now, Apple will take the stage at WWDC 2025 and showcase the big yearly upgrades for its entire software portfolio. I am quite excited about the platform-wide design update and a few functional changes to iPadOS, especially the one targeting a more macOS-like makeover for the iPad’s software. 

Of course, analysts will be keenly watching for Apple’s next moves with AI, but it seems some of the most dramatic features have been pushed into the next year. Apple can afford some of those delays, as long as the company serves enough meaningful updates to its user base. Apple won’t exactly be running dry on AI, though. 

Read more
5 rumored iOS 26 features we could see at WWDC 2025
An iPhone 16 laying on a shelf with its screen on.

Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2025 showcase is going to be a busy one, even though the expected AI-powered software rebirth may not land until next year. In the meantime, reliable sources have spilled the beans on what we might expect for the next major iOS overhaul. 

Starting with the name, Apple could skip iOS 19 and could go straight from v18 to v26. We are also expecting a design overhaul, something that could draw inspiration from Vision OS. On the functional side, an AI health coach would be a huge draw for fitness enthusiasts. 

Read more