Proton and Immich really should cooperate. The code is already done. "Just" integrate Immich with Proton Drive / Photos and we're happy.

I can imagine the E2EE part might be a problem for this, but it shouldn't be impossible.. right?

I agree the drive app is too basic for photos. I currently use immich for photos on a local server but would love to see some more options from proton.

I’ve looked into moving our entire family’s digital ecosystem from Google to Proton.

However, as long as there isn’t a dedicated Proton Photos app where photos and videos can be organised into albums and automatically shared across family devices, it’s not going to happen.

For me, Docs and Sheets are irrelevant, but a proper photo app is critical — and without that, I won’t get the family (read: my wife) on board.

Improving proton drive's photos with basic metadata stripping like leaving the date untouched for ease of use would be a better than making a new app

Just making the drive photos better would do the trick easier then making a new seperate service

Build on top of Drive a different app Protpn Photos. Basic functionality like Ente would be great. Proton Drive photos cannot handle bigger photo accounts at the moment.

This would offer a big step if you'd like to de-google your apps

I removed all my photos from Google to Proton Drive Photo. I've got more than 20 000 photos. As stated in a lot of comments, at this stage I find it uneasy to use to manage my photos: create, manage, sharing albums is a pain.
And it is very slow. On my laptop in Firefox it takes minutes for the thumbnails to be displayed. I've tweaked every options but that doesn't help much. On Android it's not better.
The poor performance is really a big issue for me. And it lacks basic features as stated by the community.

I can't leave Dropbox and move fully over to Proton until photos that are auto-uploaded from my phone are accessible on my Proton Windows client. Paying for both Proton Drive AND Dropbox doesn't feel sustainable...

Photos on Proton Drive works, but it's not great. I am currently using Ente to store my photos, because the Proton option was too clunky. Would be great to have everything in one place and not having to pay for two subscriptions.

A Photo App to replace google photos. Being able to search for certain words or maybe using a local AI to search for things like "Dog" or "Selfie" for easier management. Also include privacy features like remove EXIF data or even small editing tools like a black marker or blur option to hide/censor faces.

Currently, im using 3 seperate apps to remove exif, blur faces and to black out text on documents. This could all be merged into a photo app and included into the proton ecosystem.

I would really appreciate it if there were a separate programme just for photos. I find the ‘Photos’ feature on Proton Drive completely useless. There isn't even a preview of the images. How are you supposed to find your photos? I also think it's bad that Proton Drive can't open RAW images and the like. That shouldn't be the case with ‘Proton Photos’. I currently have my images on Apple Photos. I find it very practical. With the albums, you can easily view image information and tag the images with keywords and so on, and you can easily edit the images in the app. But I am concerned about Apple's privacy. I have read some not very pleasant news. I trust Proton. If you create a ‘Proton Photos app’, I would take a lot of inspiration from Apple Photos. In addition, the following features would earn you bonus points with photo enthusiasts who care about privacy: When editing photos, it should be possible to remove metadata with a single click and compress images according to user-defined settings. I don't have a programme with these features yet. I will soon be looking for another solution for my photos. I hope I will soon be able to enjoy storing my photos without any worries. On a cloud that is secure in terms of data protection.

Best regards,
Mischa

Just joined Proton a few days ago and I would like to emphasis this comment: Buy ente and re-brand it Proton Photos.

I think a better alternative would be to find a way to integrate Proton Drive with local storage like Samsung Gallery does with OneDrive. I think the Google Photos/Drive distinction is meaningless and Photos should have been a sub-feature of Drive to begin with. Others may disagree.

Isn't it fairly clear by now what the ideal solution is? Buy ente and re-brand it Proton Photos.

Some problems as it is currently:

1) When importing from Google Photos on Mac. When you unzip the files, MacOS creates hidden files that also get uploaded. These filenames look like "._NameOfFile.png"
The file names END with a .png but they are NOT pictures.

2) Sharing albums requires others to have a Proton account. That is not ideal.

3) Images load too slow when scrolling through pictures on Android.

4) Basic file manager view, for photos on web. This is important when you first migrate because even though you import things, you still might need to copy things back and forth and rename some albums etc.

5) Expiry date on shared albums. Make it so that if I share an album, I can set a date on which the link expires.

Metadata is actually really useful. I search my pictures by location constantly. The problem with metadata is when Google/whoever scrapes it for selling. Proton has zero-knowledge, so I have 0 problem with my metadata being intact. I would prefer it did.

I second this, I remember reading that the Proton Drive app was planned to simply get more photo features as time went on, but for me as a professional photographer I would rather have a dedicated app. I feel like casual photographers would be more likely to switch and engage as well if there was a dedicated app

Proton Photos as it stands is not competitive when compared to Google, Ente or even newcomers Zeitkapsl.

Needs a dedicated app rather than just within Drive and needs a dedicated search function

I think a better choice would be finer control for image backups with the current Drive app. If I can define a folder the photos and videos go in, and then actually choose which photos get backed up instead of backing up everything, that would be perfect! Especially since we would be limited by the same storage capacity limit either way.