Step aside, Google Photos. Proton Drive now offers automated photo backup with end-to-end encryption on iOS. This feature is available to both free and paid Proton Drive users.
Proton Drive photo backup initially launched in December 2023 as an Android-exclusive feature. The new iOS implementation is practically identical to what we saw on Android—stored photos and videos are automatically protected by end-to-end encryption before they’re uploaded to the cloud, backups are seamlessly synced across all of your devices, and an intuitive gallery is provided within the Proton Drive app.
Photo and video backups occur automatically. As soon as something hits your camera roll, it’s encrypted and sent to your Proton Drive account. You don’t need to open the Proton Drive app to trigger a backup, although you need to enable backups in the Proton Drive app to get the ball rolling.
People can securely share photos or videos from their Proton Drive account. Also, an “available offline” feature lets you view your favorite photos and videos without an internet connection (though you need to manually select which photos and videos you want to save for offline use).
Note that while Proton Drive is an effective backup solution, it lacks some of the advanced functionality that’s offered in Google Photos and iCloud. Proton Drive cannot identify people or pets in photos, it can’t produce slideshows, and it doesn’t have a natural-language search tool. There aren’t any photo-editing tools in Proton Drive, either.(These features require cloud-based processing, which is hard to implement alongside end-to-end encryption.)
Those who are interested in privacy should look into Proton’s suite of end-to-end encrypted products. Along with this cloud storage service, Proton offers a robust email client, a VPN, a password manager, and a digital calendar. You can effectively “de-Google” your life by joining the Proton ecosystem. Just know that the free versions of Proton’s products are somewhat restrictive and lack some functionality.
Both free and paid users can utilize Proton Drive photo backup. While free accounts are limited to 5GB of cloud storage, paid subscribers can get up to 3TB. First-time customers can get a year of Proton Drive Plus for $48, though I suggest using Proton Unlimited, which includes the full gamut of Proton services and costs $120.
Source: Proton
