May 6, 2026
Mute button for Big Tech
Proton Meet
Proton’s private video chat arrives — and the comments instantly turned into a privacy war
TLDR: Proton launched a free private video-calling app that says your meetings can’t be listened to, even by Proton itself. Commenters split between cheering it as a wake-up call for Zoom-style giants and rolling out hardcore takes about whether anyone serious should just run their own server instead.
Proton has entered the video-call arena with Proton Meet, promising what a lot of people clearly feel Big Tech stopped caring about: private conversations that stay private. The pitch is simple enough for anyone to get — no account needed, free calls for up to 50 people, and Proton says not even it can listen in on your audio, video, screen sharing, or chat. In a world where people now worry their meetings might feed ad systems, surveillance, or even future AI tools, that message landed with a very loud finally.
And wow, the community wasted no time turning this launch into a referendum on the entire video-chat industry. One camp was basically popping champagne. A top reaction said this should kill the excuse that secure calling is "too hard," and called out Slack, Teams, and Google for treating privacy like some luxury add-on. Another user gave the practical stamp of approval: it "performs well" in real use, which is the kind of comment privacy tools desperately need if they want normal people to show up.
But the thread wasn’t all applause. One commenter immediately hit Proton with the classic internet challenge: "How is this different from Keet?" Translation: nice launch, but are you actually bringing something new? Then came the spicy survivalist take of the day — a user declaring that in 2026, if you don’t own a domain and run your own chat server, that’s on you. It’s the kind of ultra-hardcore comment that made the whole discussion feel less like a product launch and more like a family fight at the privacy reunion.
Key Points
- •Proton launched Proton Meet as an end-to-end encrypted video calling service focused on private conversations.
- •The company says all Proton Meet calls use Messaging Layer Security (MLS) and that Proton cannot access call audio, video, screen shares, or messages.
- •Proton Meet supports instant meeting creation without sign-in, encrypted chat, screen sharing, and desktop and mobile access.
- •The service integrates with Proton, Google, and Microsoft calendars, including direct scheduling through Proton Calendar.
- •Proton Meet is free without a Proton account for up to 50 attendees and one hour per call, while the Meet Professional plan starts at $7.99 per user per month.