We are happy to announce the next version of ProtonMail’s secure email service. ProtonMail 3.4 adds two much demanded features, Custom Filters and Embedded Images

In order to make encrypted email easier to use, we have put a lot of focus this summer on adding features that exist in legacy email providers into ProtonMail, while maintaining the encryption that makes ProtonMail the world’s most secure email service. In particular, Custom Filters is a highly requested feature, garnering nearly 1300 votes from the ProtonMail user community. In this release, we are also launching support for embedded images in the ProtonMail secure email webapp. Support for embedded images on our top ranked iOS and Android encrypted email apps will come in a subsequent mobile app update.

ProtonMail does not show advertisements or abuse your privacy to make money. Paid accounts are our only source of funding. Please consider upgrading to a ProtonMail Plus account so that we can continue to operate the service and fund further development.

Filters allow you to perform custom defined actions automatically on incoming and outgoing email. You can set filters by going to Settings –> Filters. For example, you can automatically Trash or Archive messages from certain email addresses, or automatically apply labels to certain incoming messages.

For ProtonMail paid plan users, there is no limit to the number of Custom Filters that can be created. Free users are limited to one custom filter. You can learn more about custom filters for your encrypted inbox here.

With inline embedded images you can get the convenience of drag and drop with the functionality of images right within your message, all while remaining secure and private with the encryption you have come to expect. This allows seamless composition of multimedia emails with images appearing directly in a message instead of buried in your attachments.

Our support for inline images also applies to emails that you receive. Now inline images will be displayed automatically when you open the message (previously, you needed to download them from attachments to view them). If you do not want to display embedded images automatically, there is an option to turn them off in Settings. Like before however, ProtonMail continues to treat embedded images as attachments so that we can fully encrypt them with end-to-end encryption. You can learn more about this feature here.

Embedded Images in Signatures

ProtonMail 3.4 also adds support for using embedded images in your email signature. Now you can drag and drop an embedded image into your email signature and have it sent with every email you send. This can be done from the signature field in the Settings page. For embedded image in signatures, there is a size limit of 200kB.

ProtonMail Signature

ProtonMail 3.4 also introduces the ProtonMail Signature. This signature was selected after a Twitter poll in which over 2000 users participated.

The ProtonMail signature can be adjusted in the settings and when it is turned on, it is added to all emails sent through the ProtonMail web client.

In order for encrypted email to succeed in the long run, it is important to spread the news that there are more secure email providers out there. This is also important for ProtonMail’s continued growth which can allow us to bring in enough revenue to continue to support the free service. For this reason, for all new accounts, the ProtonMail signature will default to on and the option to turn it off will only be available for ProtonMail paid users. For existing free accounts, those already have some sort of ProtonMail signature (over 80% of existing accounts), the ProtonMail signature will be off and you will continue to be able to turn it on or off.

Version 3.4 Full Release Notes

New Features

Embedded Images

Custom Filters released

Paying for ProtonMail Plus with PayPal now supports additional currencies EUR and CHF

Bug Fixes

Composer optimization

Cache optimization

Known Issues

PGP key export/import functionality still missing in version 3.x, will be done for a future release.

Inability to turn off conversation mode in 3.x. Currently scheduled for Fall 2016.

Some mobile responsive issues remain

As always, you can report bugs using ProtonMail report bug feature, or send us a support request here: https://protonmail.com/support