I was surprised how easy it was.
I’m not quitting Gmail. Yet. But this experiment showed me what it could be like if moving our digital lives were as easy as ordering a pizza.
Right now, the relative simplicity of my Gmail-to-Proton transfer isn’t typical.
If you have an iPhone, it’s difficult or impossible to save your photos to anything other than Apple’s cloud. On an Android phone, Google will steer you to use Gmail, Google Maps and Google’s cloud. If you want to ditch Spotify or Amazon, you might be reluctant to leave behind your playlists or wishlists.
(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post. Interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.)
Corporate tech giants make some great products. But we also have little choice but to stay in a Big Tech marriage, whether we’re in love or not.
I’ll explain how I moved my Gmail messages, why you might want to, and how my email swap was enabled by European bureaucrats who want to make it easier for you to get a Big Tech divorce.
I’m not trying to persuade you to quit Gmail or Apple Photos. But you deserve real freedom to pick up your digital memories and move to something better. And there are too many barriers in your way.
How I took the exit ramp from Gmail
Proton pitches itself as a more secure and private email service. It’s free to start using. Proton offers an “Easy Switch” feature with instructions to move your inbox messages from Google’s Gmail, Yahoo or Microsoft’s Outlook.
There’s not yet an easy way to transfer messages from another email provider, such as Apple or your internet service provider.
I checked a box asking whether I wanted to copy just my Gmail messages or also my Google calendar entries and phone contacts.
Next I entered my Gmail account password. The whole process took me just a few minutes. (Check out the One Tiny Win section below for more detailed instructions.)
After about three hours of Proton processing in the background, my Gmail messages finished flowing into my Proton inbox. The company says this could take up to several days.
The original messages are still in my Gmail. New emails sent to my Gmail address still show up in my Gmail inbox. This gives me a chance to test drive Proton without committing to switching email providers.
Proton also lets you forward emails automatically from Gmail to Proton if you want to wean yourself off Gmail.
Proton said that about 90 percent of new users don’t pull in messages from another service and instead start with an empty inbox.
Why you might want to consider an email switch
You know that “free” services have strings attached. Google shows you ads in Gmail based on your online activity when you’re logged into Google. (Gmail no longer scans your inbox to target ads.) It’s also valuable to Google when you’re logged into Gmail and the company knows who you are as you hop around the web.
Proton is one of the few surviving email providers from a relatively small company, and it doesn’t sell ads or make money in other ways from your personal information.
Google said in a statement that its communication software including Gmail is “deeply committed to building a platform that’s an open and extensible foundation for our users, customers, partners, and developers.”
The Google representative also pointed to the company’s work with a tech coalition to make it easier for people to move their data among different services.
Andy Yen, Proton’s CEO, told me that he doesn’t expect you to quit Gmail or whatever email provider you’re using.
Yen imagines Proton as the place for communications that you want to keep private, like those among your friends and family or email related to your finances and health.
“Our goal is not to be the only email account you use,” Yen said. “It’s to be the email account for things that matter.”
Consider carefully before you transfer emails as I did. Proton had a glimpse at my Google account data. I’ve done enough reporting about Proton to trust the company but you definitely shouldn’t trust just any email provider.
Yen said that Google did a rigorous security check before Proton could access a software link to Google account data.
European regulation is responsible for my email switch
Yen said Proton’s Easy Switch feature was possible because of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
That privacy law is responsible for the constant cookie pop-up messages you see on websites. But GDPR also forced many companies to let you move your data from one digital service to another.
It’s not always easy or useful to move your data somewhere else. I downloaded 15 years of my tweets and other information from Twitter but it’s not like I’m going to transfer it to Instagram or something.
Another European law, the Digital Markets Act, is trying to go even further.
The law may, for example, require Google and Apple to let you more easily back up your phone to Dropbox’s cloud, use Proton Mail when you tap an email address on your phone and pay for apps without using the companies’ official app stores.
Google said Android gives people choices including by switching the built-in keyboard or messaging app and in some cases paying for apps without using a Google account.
It’s not clear yet how Big Tech companies will change their services to comply with the law. Some parts of the DMA might not make sense or withstand legal challenges. But I believe the DMA is an interesting attempt to loosen tech giants’ grip on your life.
I found it eye-opening to use Proton’s email transfer feature. It made me curious how easy it might be to switch out of other digital services I use.
And even if you stick with Gmail, iCloud or Facebook Messenger forever, you want technology companies to feel terrified that you might ditch their products at a moment’s notice. That fear is what keeps innovation alive for you.
But corporate terror is only real if it’s actually easy to switch.
The Washington Post is making our articles free for everyone to read this week through Thursday. Enjoy! May I suggest starting with this recent column about the whimsy and the potential danger of Photoshop’s two-click photo invention machine.
(If you don’t subscribe to The Post, you’ll need to provide your email address. Yes, we will try to persuade you to subscribe to The Post later.)
Here are more specific steps to transfer your Gmail messages to Proton Mail:
Your first move is to create a Proton Mail account if you don’t have one already. You may need to pay Proton for it if you’re moving a large number of messages from Gmail or another email provider.
Proton Mail gives you 500 MB of free digital storage and you can double that to 1 GB if you do a few tasks in your account. (My Google account says I have about 2.2 GB of Gmail messages.)
For comparison, Apple gives iPhone owners 5 GB of free storage for email, photos and backups on your devices. Google offers 15 GB for free for Gmail, its photo service, file storage and other cloud services.
Proton has a 15 GB storage option for email, digital file storage and more that costs $4.99 a month and an “unlimited” account with 500 GB of storage for $11.99 a month.
Pro tip: If you’re paying for Proton Mail, you’ll save money if you buy on Proton Mail’s website and not in the Proton Mail apps for iPhone or Android devices.
Apple and Google’s app stores hide lower-priced digital subscription options from you. Proton is among the smaller tech companies that have picked fights with Apple and Google over their control of what you can do in apps.
From my Proton Mail inbox, I went to the Settings gear icon in the upper right hand corner. Choose “Go to settings” → Import via Easy Switch → Gmail. Or this is where you can pick to copy your email messages from a Yahoo or Outlook account instead.
Next I entered my Gmail account password. That was pretty much it.
You can choose to move only your Gmail messages to Proton, or also transfer your Google calendar entries and phone contacts.
