Standard Notes is Now a Part of Proton Privacy-Focused Offerings: Is it Good or Bad?

Ever since Proton rebranded themselves to bring all their offerings under a single roof, they have been making some big moves to further improve their portfolio, by working on existing services, while also acquiring new ones.

Being a Proton user myself, it really has been interesting to see how much Proton has evolved these past few years. But, during my use of their services, one thing always came to mind; why don't they have a secure note-taking app?

Fortunately, that's not the case anymore! 🎉

Proton + Standard Notes: What to Expect?

With a surprise move, Proton has acquired Standard Notes, a popular secure note-taking app with over 300,000 users, for an undisclosed amount. Thanks to that, Proton now has a dedicated note-taking app in its lineup.

But, don't think that Standard Notes will cease to exist. When announcing the move, Mo Bitar, the founder of Standard Notes, added that:

I agreed to join Proton because of how well-aligned we are in our goals and principles. This means you won’t see any major changes in the Standard Notes apps or organization. We will continue to work on designing and building the best note-taking app on the planet.

That does check out; both Proton and Standard Notes are two organizations that value user privacy above anything else, even if it means not accepting investment from venture capitalists.

As for existing Standard Notes users, they have to keep the following things in mind:

• For starters, Standard Notes will continue to operate as an independent service, with the added advantage of Proton's resources and experience.
• It will also continue to be open-source while also receiving new features and updates, with independent audits being carried out to verify the safety and reliability of the service.

Moreover, their commitment to existing paid subscribers remains unchanged, with no pricing changes, for both new and existing users alike.

So, this acquisition is a good thing after all. Good guys joining forces! That's what we need to tackle big tech 😎

Maybe it is a good time to try Proton Mail, and its other services while its improving?

On that note (ha!), Andy Yen, CEO of Proton, has pointed out that Standard Notes will also be integrated into the Proton ecosystem. He added that:

In the coming months, we hope to find ways to make Standard Notes more easily accessible to the Proton community. This way, in addition to protecting your email, calendar, files, passwords, and online activity, you can also protect your notes.

When that becomes a reality, I expect the likes of Mail, Calendar, Pass, etc. to feature a dedicated, secure note-taking experience that could be accessed right from the interface, without the need to switch to a different website or app.

But that's just my perspective. If you take the case of SimpleLogin for instance, Proton implemented a “Login/Signup with Proton” system that allowed existing Proton users to seamlessly login/signup into the trusted email alias service.

Don't be surprised if you see something similar being implemented with Standard Notes in the near future. All in all, this move looks good on paper, and if you were to see how they handled the acquisition of SimpleLogin, Standard Notes' case should not be that different.

Oddly enough, a few months ago, I was thinking that it would be really cool if Standard Notes partnered with Proton to offer their note-taking app on the platform, as the note-taking experience on Standard Notes would have complemented Proton's offerings.

And, lo, behold, it happened! I am excited to see how Proton handles Standard Notes going forward.

💬 What about you? Are you looking forward to this? Will this affect your decision to keep using Standard Notes?