Ew.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2026
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Just to answer the "why?" question and offer one data point, as someone with a university gmail account that I obviously can't change myself this is a welcome update.
I kind of prefer the separation at the moment but it's good to know I can simplify things in the future if I choose to.
If you are a student then have fun, if you are an employee please be aware that combining your work and personal accounts in this way may be a violation of your local data protection laws. In the US that would be a FERPA violation and if you happen to work at a medical school a possible HIPAA violation.
Good to know, I haven't done anything yet of course but will look at the relevant regulations at some point. Thanks!
Just because you are a student, doesn't mean you do not violate the terms and conditions by doing that too.
it's funny, I have spent about a year migrating my gmail to proton. about 6 hours ago I got fed up with having to open gmail occasionally, so I finally deleted the account altogether.
I'm glad I didn't see this post sooner, I might have tried to keep my gmail and just run it through proton
I have a list of things that go to Gmail and set up forwarding via proton, the issue I see is I have a bunch of services I have signed up for, but may not have opened in awhile, do I need to open all those apps and "re-activate" them from hibernation to change this or can I just let them go? How did you build a list of priority for what to sign-in to change and what to fall by the wayside?
i migrated the really important stuff right away, then moved other stuff over as I noticed them.
there's still plenty of things going to my gmail, and I may have screwed myself over with an account or two, but I'll figure that out if/when I need to
I'm almost there, except every once in a blue moon I come across a website or service (usually gov't related) that refuses to take my proton.me address.
I get the "did you mean ...@proton.de?" all the time
“When you activate this feature, your latest Gmail messages will be imported into Proton Mail, so you have your recent conversations and updates right there with you. New emails received in your Gmail will then continue to appear in your Proton Mail inbox automatically.”
This is still confusing, do they mean that you can open other mailboxes on the proton mail app/web client? That would be nice if implemented well
you can now send emails from your Gmail address directly inside Proton Mail.
This is the big change. So far importing and setting up forwarding from Gmail was trivial. Sending from the Gmail address (including replying to an email sent to the Gmail address with the receiving address) was not possible without an email client with separate SMTP setup. And an email client coildn't be used without running IMAP bridge on your own machine, due to Proton's encryption. The ability to send from your Gmail address from Proton obviates all that.
does google still have access to those e-mails?
Given they have to go through Google’s servers to get there…yes.
100%
gmail.com DNS MX records still point to their servers, so they still have all your email data they then forward to proton
Don't do this. If you use proton use one of their domains or your own.
But what’s the point of this?
While it doesn't protect from Google's anti-privacy tactics, the proton Mail app does strip third party tracking from emails, which can be helpful.
Many companies use a single pixel transparent image (or similar) to identify whether a user has opened an email. They can then build a profile on which emails you opened vs left unread even if you didn't click anything.
Proton as an email frontend tries to prevent that kind of third party tracking. It also prevents Google from knowing things like how many times you open an email, how much time you look at it, etc.
It's not revolutionary, and it certainly doesn't remove the harms of staying with Gmail, but it's not pointless.
It helps make the transition smoother for people.
Which the post explains quite well.
Yeah for real. I've been thinking about switching to Proton. Now, instead of switching everything all at once (read: change the email associated to all my accounts across various websites), I can switch a few to get started and still have all my email in one place until I feel like doing the rest. That makes the task seem a lot less daunting.
To be frank, it also pauses the transition. The gmail address will remain the façade because no one even sees the proton address this way.
I fins the University email use case mentioned above a better one.
Good stuff. Been waiting on this to be able to move family out of Gmail.
Problem: my producer doesn't want to have to log in through the browser he uses Proton for.
They need to make it to where a separate browser is possible to do it.