First of all, I agree that people who don't want the feature should be able to turn it off completely and never see any trace of it. It's too easy for software to become bloated with too many "bells and whistles" and lose focus and elegance that got people to start using it when it was new.

Having said that...

I want chat added as an extension of the webmail service!

Although there are some other "private" chat services, I haven't found any that my other friends accept as readily as ProtonMail. I won't use many of them because they are not actually secure, or are run by for-profit corporations. Basically, there are few that I will use, and they are typically buggy or have immature designs. So my less-computer-literate friends won't use them.

My friends and I are all using ProtonMail and love it, and there are times when we are both online and emailing each other. It's cumbersome to send emails in both directions, and they often cross, so it's very confusing to keep a coherent conversation going. (For example, my friend might write two messages while I'm responding to an older one. Then I don't know if I should continue writing a reply, or read the new messages first. This can make a person crazy.)

In other words, the chat feature would be helpful at times when there is already an active ProtonMail email exchange going. Then it would be easy and smooth to switch over to chat.

Some people commented that they don't want ProtonMail to become another "social platform" or "social network". I don't either(!), but I'd love it if ProtonMail developed into a more capable *communication* platform.

YESSSSS!!!!! Thank you! THANK YOU!

ProtonMail definitely NEEDS a secure chat, similar to how both gmail, yahoo, and other providers have iming/chats in their email, but a more secure version in Proton mail!
An encrypted PROTONchat where both parties would automatically go off the record and possibly even use a shared password they initially (once, not every time) set to chat would be a good idea!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_Swiss

I don't see the need for this. There's signal already

Only ONE word, ekhm, wit for it... ekhmmm... NO!

If we want to improve the privacy of our communications a place to start would be the messaging format that we use for the most of our conversations nowadays (like whatsapp). This kind of communication is today in the hands of big companies because the don't support any communication standard like xmpp. ¿Anyone can imagine that a gmail account couldn't send emails to an outlook or protonmail accounts but only other gmails? This it's just what is happening in messaging alternatives that doesn't let you choose other ones because keep you captive with al yours contacts been only available in there. If email services like openmailbox already do could be used as an xmpp account very time more and more people would have an xmpp account and it would be easier to start using an standard in our more important communication nowadays.

To be honest one of the main reasons for me to switch to protonmail was to actually get rid of the social account stuff build around it. I signed up for a secure and simple, minimalistic email client first and foremost so... if you really have to add this chat (or whatever social environment thingy) pah-leez let there be an option to opt out or completely disable it.

Are you still working on it?
Telegram is already has self-destructible chats, and seems like shares your policy on privacy. Don't you think on cooperation with them?

As others have mentioned, use signal protocol

I'd love to use it as an IM on Android/iOS/Windows Phone too.

With end-to-end encryption, forward secrecy, but the possibility to keep conversation logs locally. (Logs that can be manually copied over to another device, and saved/converted in a human readable format such as HTML)

Any news on this ? I understand that it will not be for 2016, but is it a high priority for 2017 ?

Please do this. All other "secure" chat services either are not secure at all or have a very diluted user base. Proton Chat would a great opportunity for a real secure chat solution using the awesome encryption system you designed.

Please don't do this :-) There are tons of secure chat apps. You are unlikely to beat them in popularity, features, or even security. Focus 100% on creating the best encrypted email in the world.

I would really like to see this implemented.

Chat is major part of digital communication.

Having a secure chat with ProtonMail (even if it was just a XMPP server) would be a great addition to the service.

I would really not want to see this. I subscribed for an email service, not a social account. If Protonmail goes this route, please let there be an option to disable or turn it off completely.

any news?

Basic chat communication feature. The contents are scrambled end to end protonmail users, so why not have it in chat? I am only talking about between users of protonmail. Its a good way to attract more customers.

Please create a chat like ghostmail.

It would be absolutely brilliant if the chat could work via some simple background application without the need to be logged within the browser.