Proton users can now add ’emergency’ contacts for backup access

In case of emergency, you will now be able to designate certain trusted people who can gain access to your Proton account. According to yesterday’s announcement post, Proton’s new Emergency Access feature supports up to five trusted contacts… with some caveats.

Proton

For one, you can only designate people who have Proton accounts of their own, as they’ll need to use their Proton account to access yours. With access granted, a trusted contact can then log into your Proton account whenever you’re unavailable or incapacitated, whether due to travel, illness, or (in the worst case) death.

Emergency Access will send you a notification whenever a trusted contact tries to access your account, and if you don’t explicitly respond with a denial, access will be granted. You can choose whether contacts can gain access immediately or whether they need to wait a certain number of days, weeks, or months before access is granted.

Proton

The other big catch is that Emergency Access is only available to paying Proton customers. Any paid plan qualifies for this feature, so if you want it, go ahead and upgrade your Proton Pass, Mail, VPN, or Drive plans. Alternatively, check out Proton Unlimited for full premium features across all Proton apps and services for just $9.99/month.