End-to-end encryption can give you peace of mind, whether you’re sharing or storing photos, videos, or other types of media across devices. However, not all products and services are this secure. Those that offerend-to-end encryptionmay require extra effort to ensure that it is enabled. If you want to worry less about privacy and security, you might want to look into Proton. The company offers an extensive suite of end-to-end encrypted products and services, including email and cloud storage. Now, Proton is taking aim atGoogle Photosby launching a new backup feature specifically for photos.
Proton has announced a new feature called Photo Backup in Drive — its cloud storage service that rivals Google Drive — for Android users. With this in place, Proton will automatically upload images and videos from your phone to its Drive, fully encrypted before they leave the device. The goal is to ensure that all content is private and secure through end-to-end encryption, even in the event of a breach.
Like with Google Photos and Drive, uploads are automatically synced across devices as well. Users can also access their uploaded content offline, and there are several options to organize photos once they’re in Drive. They sit in a new Photos tab, in which you can select, download, preview, or delete media. For the time being, Photos is exclusive to Android, but Proton notes that iOS support will come following a closed beta. Proton also confirmed to us that photo editing is not available at this stage.
Proton is still arguably less popular than Google for products and services such as cloud storage and email. In a world where security breaches are becoming increasingly common, however, Proton is gaining ground. What once started with just email has grown into a full suite of products, including Drive for online file storage. In July 2023, the company rolled outa Windows app for Proton Driveto automate the upload and backup process. Although it took a bit longer, Proton also launcheda macOS equivalentin November 2023. The software operates similarly to the Google Drive app for desktop, allowing users to automatically sync and save content in the cloud. However, Proton emphasizes one key benefit — end-to-end encryption at all times, meaning fewer odds of privacy or security issues.
While Proton has made strides since initially launching almost 10 years ago, there is still room for improvement. Many of the recent features that have debuted also took long periods of time to launch — the macOS version of the Drive software, for example, came months after it debuted for Windows. That being said, there is still ample potential behind Proton and its line of products, especially as more people look to bolster their security.
