Going open source was one of the most important steps for our secure email service Tutanota. Publishing the Tutanota code on Github gave us a great push because many people started building the Tutanota client locally. Since people being active on Github know a thing or two about programming and encryption, they gave us very valuable feedback on how to improve Tutanota’s security. We want many more people to watch our code and to build it locally. We are convinced that it is crucial that the community digs deep into our code to further improve its security.
After our open source release in September 2014 we have added many improvements to Tutanota. We have implemented DANE support which immensely enhances the security of SSL. We have build an Android and an iOS app, and published these as open source apps as well. We would have loved to add our Android app on F-Droid as well. Unfortunately, the adding process was very complex and time-consuming so we focused on improving the Tutanota open source email client and the app features in general instead. However, we know that many of our users do not want to use the Google Playstore - for a very good reason - so we made the app available on our website as well.
We were able to publish the apps around Christmas and New Year’s, and it was a great feeling receiving so many thank-you emails at this time of the year! A few months later we added the functionality to create folders in Tutanota. Recently we also enabled our users to use their custom domain with Tutanota, which was a great success.
Shortly after the open source release, we also started a translation project for Tutanota. By now around 180 volunteers have joined us and translated Tutanota into more than 30 languages. This support is simply amazing! It shows us that a secure alternative is needed around the world. Your translations help your friends and family who do not understand English to be able to protect their emails easily. We are very happy that we can already support so many languages, and we want to add many more. If you feel the same, you can easily join our translation project.
Let’s create a secure email service that takes your privacy to the next level
At Tutanota we focus on your privacy, and your privacy only. We encrypt your entire mailbox, not just your emails, but also your contacts. We want to add many more features like a calendar that will also be fully encrypted. Our design allows you to access your encrypted data from any device simply by entering your login password. To enhance your security further, we will soon add two-factor authentication.
We have planned many more features to improve your secure email client. We are very happy about all the feedback and all the votes we receive in our feedback forum so that we can decide better what features to prioritize. It is also great when users offer to develop features of their own. For instance one user offered to develop a dark theme, and we hope that we can integrate this soon. Another one offered to implement a signature feature, which we will add in a few weeks.