[dangond]

Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.

[haswell]

Webmail requires an active Internet connection. A desktop client lets me work in more environments/situations, and acts as a kind of local backup/cache of my communications.

It also makes focusing on email easier. I dislike having to dive into tab sprawl to read/write email.

[mngdtt]

webmail works fine without an internet connection, gmail does it. You need to write a PWA.

[wvh]

I feel the opposite. The desktop app makes the data – my data – local. If it's a web app, the data and access to it is controlled by the service provider. If you stop paying, if they decide they don't like you, if they go bankrupt or something else happens on their end, your data is gone. And no connection to the internet means no data. I prefer to keep truly personal stuff such as (some) emails and other messaging, pictures and passwords local. Of course, not everyone is as technical and for many it might be a better idea not to worry and rely on the cloud.

[eviks]

It's faster, easier to alt-tab to (installed PWAs might address this), but also easy to manage in other ways: window positioning, custom shortcuts, custom UI; then offline use, local backup of your very important data, and a bunch of other things that don't pop into my mind right now. You could also call most of these "ergonomics"

[bravetraveler]

I use a mail client for offline access, backups, and faster search

I stopped using Proton largely because the bridge was unreliable - this may have kept me around

My browser does too much already, too. I appreciate actual applications that have an identity beyond a favicon

[Night_Thastus]

Weird - bridge has worked flawlessly for me for the last couple of years. I use Thunderbird with it. They had clear instructions on how to configure it in just a couple of clicks and I haven't had to mess with it since then.

My ONLY complaint is that if I launch Thunderbird before Bridge has finished, it won't connect. That can be fixed by waiting first, or opening the app on a schedule, or just closing and re-opening it. (I choose to use a scheduled app open)

[jes]

Same. I love the idea of ditching the Proton Mail bridge app on my Macs. It's been a frequent source of configuration and update headaches for me.

[jwells89]

Less tab clutter, enhanced ability to use OS app/window management facilities, no space eating browser chrome, works without a browser being open (yes that does happen on occasion).

It doesn’t apply to Proton’s desktop app specifically but generic email clients also allow management of multiple accounts in a single window without the messiness of forwarding.

[Night_Thastus]

For me, I generally prefer dedicated apps to a browser if possible. They tend to be more functional and less burdened down by being general-purpose software.

It's also a more controlled environment. I tend to run a lot of custom browser settings, mountains of addons, etc. I know that my desktop mail app won't be affected by those.

[ttt3ts]

Same,fyi, chrome's --app combined with --user-data-dir is amazing for this without having to install a bunch of different electon apps.

[neogodless]

While the gap has closed over the years, with high quality web apps and the ability of the browser to send you notifications, I still prefer to use Thunderbird to check my multiple accounts, and only notify for my primary folder, while lots of relative junk gets filtered down to sub-folders, where I do not want notifications.

[dgellow]

Fast and reliable, don’t update without me knowing about it, keep copies locally (pretty important for emails imho)

[PH95VuimJjqBqy]

In theory performance but modern software has kind of destroyed that argument.

But desktop software SHOULD be more performant.

Regardless of all the work done in browsers, native UI's still feel better in terms of latency and performance.

[garyrob]

Pretty happy here with Apple Mail. It uses MacOS' Spotlight for indexing. It's just more applike, quick and responsive than the web version.

[giancarlostoro]

Being able to read mail offline, not waiting on emails to load, and I am sure others have clients they prefer.

[waynesonfire]

I am in control of the update roadmap of applications that run on my system.