Proton Calendar Integration

[xdaluca]

Is your proposal related to a problem?

for Proton Calendar users, need to use .ics

Describe the solution you'd like

integration with proton calendar for availabilities and meeting confirmations, finally I can give up on google altogether.

Describe alternatives you've considered

manual process, or Google.

Additional context

the topic has been raised at #3167

[PeerRich]

@alishaz-polymath can you check if proton runs on CalDav?

[PeerRich]

maybe also sync proton with a different calendar that is compatible in the meantime?

[alishaz-polymath]

Sure. I'll take a look. 👍

[shawnyeager]

FYI that Proton now provides the ability to create a CalDav (.ics) URL, however, it does not need/require a username and password, which the Cal.com CalDav app requires be populated.

[alishaz-polymath]

Hey @shawnyeager
I had a look at Proton and I could see that the .ics is read-only which suggests, cal events will not be created on the calendar using the .ics link that you mentioned. Can you confirm if this is the case or have I misunderstood it?
ref: https://proton.me/support/share-calendar

[shawnyeager]

Thanks, @alishaz-polymath. That's correct. Their design and encryption prevents 3rd-party writes currently.

I was hoping to at least be able to read for inclusion in availability.

[alishaz-polymath]

Thanks, @alishaz-polymath. That's correct. Their design and encryption prevents 3rd-party writes currently.

I was hoping to at least be able to read for inclusion in availability.

I have contacted them to see their stance on our potential integration. I"ll wait to hear back from them and proceed accordingly. The fact that it can only receive freebusy data suggests potential issues later on since this cannot be used as a destination calendar. I'll look further into it and see if we can make it work for just freebusy check. 🙏
I'll keep you guys posted here

[PeerRich]

/bounty

[algora-pbc]

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[alishaz-polymath]

So, I've had a chat for their Tech Lead and we are currently trying to figure out the mechanics of providing a proper integration, not just the fetch of freebusy data, but a proper two-way sync.
They should get back to me with further details at some point this week (I think) and I would be able to provide more information once they do 🙏

[shawnyeager]

Great news. You'll be the only product that I'm aware of, so among the privacy-focused crowd, you'll have a strong differentiation. Thanks.

[xdaluca]

Great news. You'll be the only product that I'm aware of, so among the privacy-focused crowd, you'll have a strong differentiation. Thanks.

Indeed, also I think that given the moves that the Proton team have been making with adding a calendar and drive to the email, maybe shared docs in the future, adoption is rising.

[PeerRich]

excited for this. great stuff @alishaz-polymath

[PeerRich]

if anyone wants to pick this up, here's how to make an app: https://docs.cal.com/how-to-guides/how-to-build-an-app

[aar2dee2]

Hey, could you assign this to me?

[alishaz-polymath]

Hi @aar2dee2 we're currently in talks with the team at Proton Calendar as there's no direct way of doing it just yet. As there needs to be internal discussions and talks between Cal and Proton, potentially, I think it's better if we handle it internally atleast until we have a plan in place 🙏

[aar2dee2]

Sure, thanks!

[THESHade]

Please keep us posted; otherwise, it'd be great to have at least the availability. I'd even try to look into it (found this thread while doing my research :) )

[alishaz-polymath]

Hi @THESHade There is development in works at Proton's end, so it's pretty positive right now and moving ahead. There was an unexpected delay on their end, but I heard back from them this week that there's potentially going to be news in a week or two 🎉
Once that's clear, I'll make sure to update here the state of this plan. As for simply availability checking, it doesn't seem wise to invest time into a partially usable integration when development for end to end sync is currently underway

[JuliusGudni]

@alishaz-polymath Any update on this?

[alishaz-polymath]

Hey @JuliusGudni
I have tried to get in touch with them,however, I haven't heard back yet. I'll try to chase them again just in case my email was skipped by mistake. 🙏

[MikeBirdTech]

Excited to hear that this is in the works! Is there anything that the community can do to help move this forward? Or just need patience?

[alishaz-polymath]

Hey @Arrendy
We just need to be patient as far as this is concerned, I'm afraid. I have contacted them again and I did hear back from their support team, they say they'll get back to me ASAP, but not really an exact ETA just yet. 🙏
Thank you for your patience on this one, I know it has been a while, but it's not up to us at the moment, we're trying our best to push it as best as we can. 😄

[MikeBirdTech]

Thanks for the update. There's also a feature request for Proton Calendar integrations where some cal.com love can be shown!
https://protonmail.uservoice.com/forums/932842-proton-calendar/suggestions/45821284-integration-with-other-apps-and-platforms

[alishaz-polymath]

So I just heard back from them after quite a lot of back-to-back email bumps, and unfortunately, they responded with not too promising information.

They were attempting to experiment with Caldav integration, which prompted them to provide a test API and move forward. However, as a general policy, they do not support integrations between their Proton products and other third-party services. This makes it challenging to prioritize such projects against other features on their roadmap for the time being.

There are multiple reasons for this stance, such as maintaining a consistent user experience and functionality of their services, ensuring end-to-end encryption wherever possible, preventing unexpected bugs, and guaranteeing the validity of their third-party security audits. The latter becomes particularly challenging when integrating their services with other products. For these reasons, they don't support integrations with any third-party products. It is important to understand their position that this is a uniform rule they uphold for all third parties. However, if there are any changes to this policy in the future, they will make sure to inform accordingly.

They tried, but couldn't prioritize adding CalDAV on their system (or a direct 3rd party integration with us). If you guys can make some noise on their end and be vocal to them, maybe this changes.

Closing this ticket for the time being (until their stance changes, if it does, when it does)

[alishaz-polymath]

We really wanted to give you an end-to-end experience with Proton Calendar and really tried to push them to make it work (for many months), but clearly it is not possible at the moment and personally, I'm gutted.

So, just as a point of note, to support ics feed for availability we will be looking at issue #3167 which should help with availability integration with proton calendar at the very least.

[christopherpickering]

Thanks for trying! Maybe one day 👍🏼

[shawnyeager]

Thanks, all, for trying to make this happen. As a long-time Proton user and subscriber, this is disappointing. I appreciate the complexities on their end, but it will be increasingly difficult for Proton to remain viable as a walled garden.

[colans]

Crazy idea: How about just sending the usual iCal email message to all parties, but not writing to the calendar? Proton users can then access their account, look at the message, and then hit the "Add to calendar" button. It's an extra step, but makes the system usable without requiring write access.

Availability will already be handled by #3167 so no need to worry about that here.

All that would be required in user accounts is an option to not write to any calendar, which seems like a minimal amount of work.

What do you think?

[BenLewies]

@colans I support that idea.

[colans]

As we're not able to reopen this issue, I've created #14300 as a follow-up. Go give it a 👍 .