For business travelers or rural workers, this is worth the price of admission alone. Historically, to use ProtonMail with Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, you needed the "ProtonMail Bridge"—a piece of software that decrypts email on the fly. It worked, but it was complex to set up and occasionally buggy.

Here is why you should download it right now. The web version of ProtonMail is fast, but the desktop client is instantaneous . Because the app is built natively (using Electron, but heavily optimized), switching between emails, searching your archive, or moving threads to folders happens without the millisecond delay of a browser render.

Well, that puzzle is finally complete.

The desktop client uses your operating system’s native notification center. More importantly, you have granular control. You can choose to show the sender and subject in the pop-up, or hide everything until you click on it. No prying eyes at the coffee shop will see your sensitive data flash across the screen. Let’s address the elephant in the room. As of now, the ProtonMail desktop client only works with ProtonMail —not Proton Calendar, not Proton Drive, and certainly not your Gmail account.

For years, if you wanted to check your ProtonMail inbox, you had three options: the web browser, the mobile app, or a clunky third-party bridge. For many users, the browser tab worked fine. But if you are a “tab hoarder” or you simply hate the friction of logging into websites repeatedly, the lack of a native desktop app felt like a missing puzzle piece.