Security cannot take a back seat in your online adventures these days. The web is home to a thriving market of data brokers, hackers, scammers, andbad actors looking for inroadsto your personal accounts, financial and otherwise. We cannot recommendour favorite password managersenough as a first line of defense, and the segment continues expanding with new entrants like Proton Pass.Being the newest, Proton has a lot of catching up to do, and we now have a look at its short-term roadmap. However, there’s one key detail missing, but understandably so.
Swiss privacy-focused brand Protonlaunched Proton Passfor its users in April this year. Features were rather rudimentary in the beginning, but outlining the plans for the immediate future, the company says it willfocus on three key aspects. First off, it plans to leverage end-to-end encryption, so passwords, notes, and bank card information are easily shareable with people you trust. This should be available in the fourth quarter of this year, followed by alias sharing support down the road.
Proton also plans to treat users to a full-fledged web app, instead of relying solely on the browser extension available today. It would make Proton Pass easier to access on machines where installing the extension is unfeasible, like a public computer. Dedicated desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux are in the cards too, adding the convenience of offline access.
In the immediate future, the company plans to build user-requested features like credit card info autofill on the web, an extension for Safari browser, and support for additional languages to make the service more accessible worldwide. Proton Pass should also let you pin or bookmark frequently used credentials. However, Proton has noticeably avoided any mention of passkey support in its roadmap.
Passkeys are all the rage with established password managers likeBitWardenand1Passwordsupporting them already. If you haven’t heard, these are cryptographic authentication keys that are stored in two halves — one on the service you’re accessing and the other on your device, authenticated by your biometrics like face or fingerprint ID. Keys are unique, and you can store them in password managers for easy access. The system is phishing-proof, and safer than two-factor authentication because biometrics are involved. Google data revealedpasskeys make logins fastertoo. Google personal andWorkspace accounts already use passkeysfor authentication, andnative support for Androidis in the works.
It may be surprising, then, why Proton Pass didn’t mention this game changing tech in the roadmap. A Proton spokesperson said
“We are closely monitoring passkeys development, and it is indeed part of our longer term roadmap for Proton Pass. We however believe passwords are not going away anytime soon as passkeys' adoption will not happen overnight and the use of password will still be relevant for a foreseeable future.”
Looking at Proton Pass from the company’s perspective, passkey support isn’t a priority immediately because the service still needs to achieve feature parity with established password managers around. Even without passkey support, though, Proton still has an unshakable reputation for user privacy, and that applies to Proton Pass as well.
