Rebranding or integrating Standard Notes as Proton Notes would improve visibility and trust. People already recognize the Proton name, so they are more likely to try it. A better UI plus a strong brand could attract more users and increase paid subscriptions.

Just a few notes here (pun not intended), food for thought.

Standard Notes seems not functional anymore and appears to have been abandoned.
Proton Docs is not an appropriate solution for this use case, as it addresses a different scope.
A note taking application is intended to be lightweight and focused on the quick capture and organisation of notes, ideas, and details, similar in nature to tools such as Notion. Supporting Markdown can be useful for some users, but making Markdown the only option limits flexibility and can add unnecessary friction for a simple note taking application.

A note taking application must be lightweight, simple, fast, and well organised. This is particularly important for business use cases, such as managing multiple clients with separate vaults, keeping private notes visible only to the author, or maintaining content that must remain invisible to the client. The application should allow the creation of a new note instantly and without distractions, ideally through a browser extension or a quick action menu. If opening a browser is required every time a note needs to be captured, the process becomes impractical and the application might be abandoned.

The same applies to overly complex applications that require long structural decisions about where to save content, how to organise it, or that enforce a single document based workflow. Note taking is inherently a fast, low friction activity and requires a dedicated solution designed specifically for that workflow.

Reading other comments, someone already mentioned valuable tools such as OneNote, Notesnook, Google Keep, Obsidian, or Notion as reference

This would be a game changer for me. I'd subscribe to Unlimited in a heartbeat if a modernized and streamlined cross-platform Standard Notes app was part of it.

EDIT: Love Markdown!

bring proton notes into the main group of apps rather than it being a different product requiring a different subscription

A Proton alternative for OneNote would actually be top-tier-software.

There is basically no true competitor for OneNote out there, less so when privacy is key.

Stylus support for handwriting and/or PDF annotations would be amazing!

Standard Notes subscription is my worst purchase of the year. The free version was just the right amount of tease to make me bite the bullet for a sub. And boy was I disappointed.

I hope someday soon Proton team completely takes over Standard Notes, integrates it into Proton ecosystem, and credits the remaining time on SN subscriptions as Proton credit.

Note-taking is essential today, yet existing solutions are far from satisfactory.
Many applications are not truly secure. Some are paid but offer no features that justify sometimes exorbitant subscription fees for simple note-taking. And when they are free, it is often because the data is being analyzed.

Moreover, most apps are poorly or not at all configurable. Google Keep, in my opinion, is one of the most advanced solutions, but it is still limited, even just in terms of its layout. You can use tags, but there is no way to create folders, organize, or group notes. Tags work well when you have a small number of notes, not when you have 20 or 30 notes on the same topic.

And then there is a real question: what exactly does Google have access to through its note-taking application?

In short, the idea is excellent, but a serious solution is missing. Proton should develop a basic, simple, truly secure note-taking application, configurable in terms of organization, and accessible both on PC and smartphone. After all, that’s the whole point of notes: being able to find them everywhere, on every device you need.

It would better to use Markdown format than creating a Proton format because Markdown is universal so it facilitates interoperability with other note-taking systems.

I agree with you Paul.

I believe Proton misrepresented themselves when they initially announced their "joining forces" with Standard Notes. Then on 12 December (One week ago as of today) they put this out on X.

https://x.com/ProtonPrivacy/status/1999506923385770226?s=20

As a paying business customer since 2018 and someone who's followed Proton's progress as well as listened to Andy Yen say time after time that Proton is a customer led company, having no shareholders to answer to. Only to then watch them offer products I'm not seeing people ask for is disheartening.

Paul, you're right. I also have the professional tier of Notesnook, and it is superior to Standard Notes.

It's hard to see what Proton users get from this joining of forces. Notesnook is the better product to me, and cheaper than SN. Join forces with them and integrate Drive, Calendar, and Lumo there. What portion of my Proton fee goes to improving SN, which I can't use other than a very limited Free version? I'm certainly not paying for SN in addtion to Proton.

100% AGREED! But it should be Standard Notes (Productivity level) and not Standard Notes (Standard level). Proton Sheets should be included as well.

This is 100% spot-on!

To add, I think Standard Notes should also provide for the ability for users to hand-write their notes on their own tablet devices. Currently, people can only type things onto Standard Notes, which is good for people who have computers but bad for people who have tablets.

Additionally, Standard Notes (or whatever Proton decides to turn it into) should also have a feature similar to Apple's Freeform, which is essentially a giant endless-plain to write notes on. This is way more helpful than writing something down on pages and having to flip through things just to find them (as is the case with Good Notes, which allows hand-writing on tablet by the way).

I crave an Proton app like Onenote. I need it!

I would switch from Notesnook to your app if you made something similar to Notesnook. I might use Proton Sheets separately. Currently, I use tables in Notesnook, the task tracker there, and keep all my notes there. I would really like to have my notes in Proton. I don't like Osbidian; it's cluttered and not minimalistic like Notesnook.

Having the option to leave the directory tree visible while editing a proton doc could go a long way towards a notes app. The UX associated with having to open a document in a new tab, in many ways, limits proton doc usage to longer-form documents. Having the directory tree available next to an editable document couple diwht current proton doc functionality, gives the usability for the current drive/docs apps a huge leap forward toward a notes app with only limited dev effort.

Please convert Proton's Docs Home in the Proton's Notes Home.

I'd really like to see a notes app w/ sync to desktop platforms within the Proton suite. Please bring this to reality Proton Development Team! :)

Yes, please!

We've been waiting a long time for this.

Sorry, but this Standard Notes is not good. Please please make an app similar to Google Keep. Then with a connection to email and calendar. It doesn't necessarily have to be fully functional. You can add them little by little.
Das würde auch gut mit Proton Tasks harmonieren, aber das gibt es ja leider auch nicht.