Proton Just Bought an Encrypted Notes App

Proton started out as a single service, the encrypted and secure Proton Mail, but has expanded since then to become an entire ecosystem of connected applications. There’s now a password manager (Proton Pass), cloud storage service (Proton Drive), calendar app (Proton Calendar) and VPN (Proton VPN). Proton has just announced that it’s buying out a popular notes app, potentially adding another useful service to that library.

Proton has just announced that it is buying out Standard Notes, an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app that is currently used by 300,000 people. The acquisition would see Standard Notes join the ecosystem of Proton apps. It’s not clear whether the service will be seeing a rebrand to “Proton Notes” or something along the lines—Proton is guaranteeing that the service will remain “independent,” but it also says that Standard Notes and Proton engineers will begin working together immediately, so make of that what you will.

This is the second time Proton has completed an acquisition. Back in 2022, the company bought SimpleLogin, which later became part of the infastructure for Proton Pass. This is the first time Proton buys an actual app to integrate it into its ecosystem, however. The company says that prices for the service will not be changing, and likewise, if you have an ongoing subscription to Notes, this will still be honored. Proton might choose to integrate Standard Notes into its current billing scheme, however, and into its premium plans, so we’ll have to see how that looks once this merger is a bit more finalized. Both companies say that the merger is a no-brainer—after all, Standard Notes is already an app that has high standards of security, and supports end-to-end encryption.

For now, we don’t know when, or if, the app will be changing a lot as it gets more integrated into the Proton ecosystem, but you should see no major changes at the moment. And as we said before, you should also see no changes to what you’re paying or how it’s billed. Things might turn around over the course of the coming months, however. Perhaps not branding-wise, but definitely in other ways at the very least.

Source: Proton, Standard Notes