Proton Docs appears a lot like Google Docs: white pages, formatting toolbar on the prime, reside indicators exhibiting who’s within the doc with their identify hooked up to a cursor, the entire deal. That’s not particularly stunning, for a few causes. First, Google Docs is massively widespread, and there are solely so some ways to model a doc editor anyway. Second, Proton Docs exists largely to be all of the issues which are nice about Google Docs — simply with out Google within the combine.
Docs is launching at this time within Proton Drive, as the newest app in Proton’s privacy-focused suite of labor instruments. The corporate that began as an e-mail consumer now additionally features a calendar, a file storage system, a password supervisor, and extra. Including Docs to the ecosystem is sensible for Proton because it tries to compete with Microsoft Workplace and Google Workspace and gave the impression to be clearly coming quickly after Proton acquired Normal Notes in April. Normal Notes isn’t going away, although, Proton PR supervisor Will Moore tells me — it’s simply that Docs is borrowing some options.
The primary model of Proton Docs appears to have most of what you’d anticipate in a doc editor: wealthy textual content choices, real-time collaborative enhancing, and multimedia help. (If Proton can deal with picture embeds higher than Google, it may need successful on its fingers only for that.) It’s web-only and desktop-optimized for now, although Moore tells me it’ll ultimately come to different platforms. “Every thing that Google’s bought is on our roadmap,” he says.
Since it is a Proton product, safety is all the things: the corporate says each doc, keystroke, and even cursor motion is end-to-end encrypted in actual time. Proton has lengthy promised to by no means promote or in any other case use your consumer information, which can enchantment to extra individuals than ever now that there are such a lot of questions on how your paperwork and knowledge are used to coach AI fashions. (For what it’s value, Google says it additionally doesn’t use your content material to coach its fashions.)
Proton is simply one of many corporations attempting to supply privacy-focused options to Google and Microsoft, and up to now, none of them have made a dent in these corporations’ dominance. However Proton’s merchandise have improved so much in the previous few years, and it’s getting nearer to providing all of the issues some customers would possibly want to change. (One massive factor lacking? Spreadsheets. Good luck taking Excel down, Proton.)