This App Finally Got Me to Ditch Gmail on Android

Gmail has been my go-to email client literally since I started using email. But I recently tried one of its alternatives on my Android smartphone, and I like it so much that I'm not going back to Gmail again. I'm talking about Proton Mail.

Gmail Has Become Overwhelming

The Gmail Android app has undergone many changes over time. Compared to 2014, when I first created my email account and used the Gmail app on my Android smartphone, today's Android Gmail app looks much more modern. However, I feel that the current Gmail app is too overwhelming for me.

There are plenty of options and menus that I really don't care about. Proton Mail, on the other hand, has a very simple user interface and only offers the options and menus that truly matter. Tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner, and you'll find everything the app has to offer in one place.

That said, interface preferences vary from person to person. Some of you may agree with me that the Proton Mail UI is the best, while others may argue that the Gmail app offers more features and that the Proton Mail app feels a bit outdated in 2025. However, privacy is one area where most of you would likely agree with me that Proton Mail is far better than Gmail.

The Best Privacy Among All Email Clients

Before I start talking about Proton Mail's privacy features, I'd like you to open the Gmail app on your Android smartphone, tap the hamburger icon in the top-left corner, and then select the "Promotions" tab. Here, you'll find numerous emails marked as "Sponsored." Most of these are related to recent important emails you've sent or received on Gmail. In my case, all the sponsored emails were from different banks and investment firms. This happened because I had recently been actively emailing my bank to request information about my account.

My whole point here is that your emails are not fully encrypted, and Gmail tracks how you use your account. It then uses that data to show relevant ads in the form of sponsored emails. You see, Gmail uses standard TLS encryption; as a result, the emails you send through Gmail are only protected between your device and Google's servers. Google can not only read the data when it wants but also share it with other authorities if requested.

Proton Mail, on the other hand, uses end-to-end encryption and zero-access encryption, meaning the emails you send from your device can only be accessed by you and the recipient. Since Proton has no way to access your emails, your inbox isn't bombarded with ads based on your messages. Also, unlike Google, Proton doesn't have access to read the emails you send through its mail client.

Some of you may argue that Proton Mail's end-to-end encryption only applies to emails you send from your Proton Mail account to someone who is also using Proton Mail. Fortunately, that's only half true. End-to-end encryption is also available for emails you send to other providers, but for that, you need to use Proton Mail's password protection feature. To do this, tap the lock icon that appears when composing an email in Proton Mail, then enter a password and save it. You can share the email password with the recipient through any other secure messaging channel, such as Signal and Telegram.

Proton Mail is excellent in terms of security as well. You get plenty of security features like two-factor authentication and hardware security keys. There are also settings such as Block Email Tracking, Confirm Link URLs, and more that together make Proton Mail a more private and secure email client than Gmail.

Proton Is Completely Open Source

Unlike Gmail or any other email client, Proton Mail is an open-source app. Not just Proton Mail—all Proton apps are open source and have been verified by experts.

The major benefit of an app like Proton Mail being open source is that experts can easily review its code and ensure the app performs all the functions it claims. This also allows security specialists to verify that there is nothing hidden in the code that could compromise user privacy. Therefore, if you understand code and are thinking of switching to Proton Mail, I recommend first visiting the Proton Mail GitHub page to make sure there is nothing questionable in the app's code.

The Little Features Add Up

In addition to everything described above, Proton Mail offers many other small but important features that you should be aware of. First up is the writing assistant, Proton Scribe, which helps you craft grammatically correct emails. The best part about this assistant is that it works entirely on-device and doesn't send your data to external servers, unlike cloud-based AI assistants.

Proton also doesn't use your data to train its AI models. This ensures that you can use the AI tools without compromising your privacy.

We often share confidential data with others through email. While Proton Mail's privacy laws help safeguard your information, it's still a good idea to delete these emails after a certain period. That's where Proton Mail's expiration feature comes in. It allows you to set an expiration date for emails, and once that date arrives, the email is automatically deleted from the recipient's inbox and your sent folder as well. Fortunately, this feature works for both emails you send and receive through Proton Mail or any third-party email client.

Gmail also offers a similar feature called Confidential Mode, which ensures that emails can't be downloaded or forwarded. However, unlike the expiration date feature, Confidential Mode doesn't automatically delete the message after a certain period. I hope Proton Mail introduces a feature that combines the benefits of both Confidential Mode and the expiration date option.

That said, let's look at a few other changes I'd like to see in Proton Mail.

Proton Mail's Weakest Point

The only thing I don't like about Proton Mail is its pricing. Google offers 15GB of free storage with every account you create, which is more than enough if you're just using it to send and receive emails. Proton Mail, on the other hand, offers only 1GB of free storage, which can easily fill up if you receive a lot of emails.

If you want more storage, you'll need to choose one of Proton Mail's subscription plans, which start at $4 per month and go up to $15. The $4 plan, called Mail Plus, gives you 15 GB of storage—the same amount Google offers for free. You also get a few other benefits, such as a dedicated desktop app (something Google has yet to introduce for Gmail), the option to create up to 10 email addresses, unlimited messages per day, and more.

Honestly, the $4 plan feels useless to me, as most users primarily use email clients on their smartphones and only need one email address. Paying $4 each month for just 15GB of extra storage, which Gmail offers for free, doesn't make any sense to me.

In my opinion, the $10-per-month plan is the best, as it offers 500 GB of storage and the option to create up to 15 email addresses. If Proton Mail wants to attract a larger audience, it should start offering all the benefits of its $4 plan for free.

This was all about Proton Mail and why I replaced it with Gmail. Before settling on Proton Mail, I tested almost all the email services out there—Outlook, AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail, you name it. But since privacy and security have always been important to me, I chose Proton Mail as my default email client.