[dangond]

Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.

[haswell]

Webmail requires an active Internet connection. A desktop client lets me work in more environments/situations, and acts as a kind of local backup/cache of my communications.

It also makes focusing on email easier. I dislike having to dive into tab sprawl to read/write email.

[mngdtt]

webmail works fine without an internet connection, gmail does it. You need to write a PWA.

[forward1]

Gmail also spies on everything you do, whereas desktop clients like Thunderbird do not.

[haswell]

I should clarify that I meant "webmail" in general, and meant to answer the spirit of the broader question about why people prefer thick clients over web clients. Most web clients aren't great offline, but a "YMMV" does seem necessary here.

With that said, while I don't know much about the particulars of the Proton web client and how it handles offline access, I'd still prefer a client that treats all mail the same way, regardless of provider, and that I can manage locally/migrate to a new computer/back up to my own NAS, etc.

[stvltvs]

But do I have a local backup if my webmail provider deletes my account?

[prng2021]

https://proton.me/support/export-emails-import-export-app

[giancarlostoro]

PWA does indeed let you cache plenty of data, but I am not familiar with if gmail does this at all or not.

[pcdoodle]

No thanks on the gmail, it's not really email.

[wvh]

I feel the opposite. The desktop app makes the data – my data – local. If it's a web app, the data and access to it is controlled by the service provider. If you stop paying, if they decide they don't like you, if they go bankrupt or something else happens on their end, your data is gone. And no connection to the internet means no data. I prefer to keep truly personal stuff such as (some) emails and other messaging, pictures and passwords local. Of course, not everyone is as technical and for many it might be a better idea not to worry and rely on the cloud.

[eviks]

It's faster, easier to alt-tab to (installed PWAs might address this), but also easy to manage in other ways: window positioning, custom shortcuts, custom UI; then offline use, local backup of your very important data, and a bunch of other things that don't pop into my mind right now. You could also call most of these "ergonomics"

[bravetraveler]

I use a mail client for offline access, backups, and faster search

I stopped using Proton largely because the bridge was unreliable - this may have kept me around

My browser does too much already, too. I appreciate actual applications that have an identity beyond a favicon

[Night_Thastus]

Weird - bridge has worked flawlessly for me for the last couple of years. I use Thunderbird with it. They had clear instructions on how to configure it in just a couple of clicks and I haven't had to mess with it since then.

My ONLY complaint is that if I launch Thunderbird before Bridge has finished, it won't connect. That can be fixed by waiting first, or opening the app on a schedule, or just closing and re-opening it. (I choose to use a scheduled app open)

[bravetraveler]

I also use Thunderbird - setup/controlling the startup order was the easy part.

Sometimes getting messages is where it fell apart for me. I'd be connected, the bridge would be, yet I wouldn't see messages every now and then.

Weird indeed!

[Night_Thastus]

I don't think that's a normal experience. It may be worth contacting Proton about it and asking for support, assuming you still pay for service. May be an easy fix. Or it could be on TB's end.

I'd also check if you have any unusual network configuration (PiHole, router settings, etc) and see if those could be interfering somehow.

Though since it's intermittent it may be hard for them to track down.

[bravetraveler]

Thank you for the suggestion - if I were still a customer I likely would reach out with your guidance.

I didn't investigate much... it was happening at a bad time where I really needed to stay on top of active conversations for a move.

[jes]

Same. I love the idea of ditching the Proton Mail bridge app on my Macs. It's been a frequent source of configuration and update headaches for me.

[bravetraveler]

It seems if you're on a higher tier the mail client is available - otherwise people must wait...

I hope you find it helpful, the bridge truly is dreadful!

I ultimately gave up on 'private email' and simply moved to Zoho. Proper SMTP/IMAP is nice.

[jwells89]

Less tab clutter, enhanced ability to use OS app/window management facilities, no space eating browser chrome, works without a browser being open (yes that does happen on occasion).

It doesn’t apply to Proton’s desktop app specifically but generic email clients also allow management of multiple accounts in a single window without the messiness of forwarding.

[Night_Thastus]

For me, I generally prefer dedicated apps to a browser if possible. They tend to be more functional and less burdened down by being general-purpose software.

It's also a more controlled environment. I tend to run a lot of custom browser settings, mountains of addons, etc. I know that my desktop mail app won't be affected by those.

[ttt3ts]

Same,fyi, chrome's --app combined with --user-data-dir is amazing for this without having to install a bunch of different electon apps.

[neogodless]

While the gap has closed over the years, with high quality web apps and the ability of the browser to send you notifications, I still prefer to use Thunderbird to check my multiple accounts, and only notify for my primary folder, while lots of relative junk gets filtered down to sub-folders, where I do not want notifications.

[dgellow]

Fast and reliable, don’t update without me knowing about it, keep copies locally (pretty important for emails imho)

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

In theory performance but modern software has kind of destroyed that argument.

But desktop software SHOULD be more performant.

Regardless of all the work done in browsers, native UI's still feel better in terms of latency and performance.

[garyrob]

Pretty happy here with Apple Mail. It uses MacOS' Spotlight for indexing. It's just more applike, quick and responsive than the web version.

[giancarlostoro]

Being able to read mail offline, not waiting on emails to load, and I am sure others have clients they prefer.

[waynesonfire]

I am in control of the update roadmap of applications that run on my system.