 in The Wall Street Journal: “Encryption Bans… What Is This, Russia?”

With Skiff blocked by Russia, we have been even more dedicated to our mission to make collaboration and communication more private and free. However, with this goal, we are alarmed by the amount of legislation and proposals to limit encryption in the U.S., E.U., Australia, and U.K.

In our article, we explore recent pushes to limit encryption in these countries, and how they threaten basic democratic values. Limiting or rejecting end-to-end encryption restricts basic freedoms and rights that we expect in democratic states that defend individual rights to freedom of speech, writing, and expression.

Read more in the link here, and join our communities on 

 for Skiff's privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted workspace. Beyond major highlights such as the Skiff Mail launch, the long awaited release of Skiff Drive, and, earlier this month, the Skiff Calendar release, we launched Mobile apps for Skiff Pages, Mail, and Drive; a macOS Desktop app; and did a Cyber Monday promotion for Skiff Swag.

Below, check out several of Skiff’s biggest accomplishments.

Import your files from Google Drive to Skiff

Skiff kicked off 2022 by asking itself how it could make it easier for users to get their data off of anti-privacy platforms such as Google Drive onto privacy-respecting end-to-end encrypted services such as Skiff. The answer it came up with is to allow users to securely transfer all of their Google Docs onto Skiff simply by pressing a button. Skiff is end-to-end encrypted. There’s no setting to toggle. Privacy isn’t optional. Skiff is completely private from the first time you use it and no one but you can ever access your data — not even Skiff.

 to allow users to easily, privately, and securely purchase a Skiff Pro plan using self-service crypto payments. To use crypto payments, just navigate to the “Plans” page in Skiff’s settings and click the “Upgrade with crypto” button. You’ll see the option to purchase Skiff Pro with a Coinbase account or using any crypto wallet. BTC, ETH, and USDC are supported, with more coming soon. Once you’ve chosen your preferred cryptocurrency, just submit the transaction and enjoy using Skiff Pro immediately.

Skiff releases Workspaces, an all-new way to privately collaborate with your team. Skiff Workspaces was later updated in November to include custom domains and other user features; read more 

Skiff Releases File Storage and Document Templates

As a precursor to the Drive launch, we released file storage inside documents. Every Skiff page now supports embedding any file type - with end-to-end encryption and complete privacy. If you have IPFS decentralized storage enabled on your account, the file is stored end-to-end encrypted and fully decentralized on IPFS. In addition, whether you want to write up technical documentation or keep a daily journal, Skiff’s new template feature has you covered. Choose a template whenever you create a new page. It’s that easy.

Skiff recognizes that Mac desktop applications are widely used by a significant number of people around the world. According to Apple, as of 2021, the Mac has a global installed base of over 100 million users. This suggests that there is a large and diverse user base for Mac desktop applications. As of April 18, Skiff Users can now use Skiff as a native Mac application with the macOS app.

Check out our downloads, including the latest Mac app, here → 

Skiff Mail is end-to-end encrypted, private, open-source email that protects your inbox and gives you the power to communicate freely. On May 2, Skiff announced its Alpha launch of the mail product. Members of the Skiff 

Skiff announced the release of its iOS application for its mail service. You can download the application 

On this day, Skiff Mail launched to the public and was 

 has spent the last couple of years developing a privacy-focused, collaborative document editing platform that you could most succinctly describe as ‘encrypted Google Docs.’ Now, it’s coming for Gmail. The company is launching an email service called Skiff Mail that aims to be, well, encrypted Gmail — and eventually much more than that.”

Upload and share end-to-end encrypted, private files from your same Skiff account. A cloud storage drive is a type of online storage service that allows users to store, retrieve, and share digital files and data over the internet. Cloud storage drives typically offer a large amount of storage space that can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. Skiff’s Drive offering is a privacy-first, secure offering that sets it apart from all legacy providers. For more info, visit 

After launching Skiff Drive, Skiff made numerous meaningful improvements to its product suite. On July 2nd, Skiff added custom email signatures, a long-awaited and highly requested feature. On July 13th, we launched a new “schedule send” feature, allowing users to choose a date, time, and timezone for their email to be sent out into the world. To conclude its busy month of July, on July 25th we launched an “undo send” feature, allowing users to bring back an email into their drafts in the five seconds after sending an email.

On August 1st, Skiff released its signature manager, allowing users to customize their signature in every email, and on August 25th, it dropped a new “auto-reply” feature—allowing users to compose an auto-reply message and subject for when they need to send an immediate response. Lastly, September was filled with numerous mobile improvements such as app-switching functionality, a new settings page, and multiple account login.

Now users can sign up and use the domain @keplr.xyz with their Keplr Wallet. Keplr is an open-source, non-custodial, multi-chain wallet that allows users to store, manage, and interact with their digital assets on various blockchain networks. The wallet supports a wide range of assets, including cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. One of the main features of Keplr is its integration with the Cosmos ecosystem, which enables users to seamlessly interact with decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols built on the Cosmos network.

Keplr also supports other popular blockchain networks, making it a versatile wallet for managing a diverse range of digital assets. Keplr offers a user-friendly interface and is available on desktop and mobile devices. It also includes security features, such as seed phrase recovery and biometric authentication, to help protect user accounts and assets. Overall, Keplr is a feature-rich wallet that provides a convenient and secure way for users to manage and interact with their digital assets on multiple blockchain networks. By partnering with Keplr, Skiff demonstrated its commitment to building for a more privacy-centric, decentralized world. Read more on our blog → 

Users can add their Solana wallet to send and receive mail via their Bonfida SOL name and the domain solana.email. For context, Solana is a fast, secure, and scalable blockchain platform that is designed to support a wide range of decentralized applications (DApps). It is possible that you are referring to a decentralized application (DApp) built on the Solana platform that allows users to send and receive emails in a decentralized manner.

New paid plans, including custom domains, more aliases, and up to 1 TB of storage, are now out. You can check out these new paid plans on the Skiff 

. Hundreds of domains are already being used to send mail privately on Skiff.

Skiff Calendar is end-to-end encrypted, keeping your events private to you. All event names, descriptions, locations, and external attendees are end-to-end encrypted. Skiff calendar is also intuitive, easy to use, and compatible with invites and RSVPs from any other digital calendar. Try it at 

A digital calendar is an important tool for managing and organizing one's schedule and tasks. It can help individuals and teams stay on top of deadlines, appointments, meetings, and other commitments. Using a digital calendar can help improve productivity by providing a centralized, organized place for scheduling and tracking tasks and events. It can also help teams stay coordinated and reduce the risk of scheduling conflicts.

Overall, a digital calendar is a valuable tool for managing and organizing one's schedule and tasks, and can help improve productivity in both individual and team settings. Check it out here → 

The Skiff Calendar and Drive launch to the public was 

 by journalist Rashi Shrivastava. At this point, the Skiff products had grown to over 350,000 users, millions of emails sent and received, and a complete ecosystem of privacy-first workspace products for communicating and collaborating. Skiff Calendar is end-to-end encrypted, private, and integrates directly with Skiff Mail for all events and RSVPs, even with other digital calendars.

2022 Year in review

On December 28th, Fast Company published their list of the top 25 newest apps of 2022. From Mastodon to ChatGPT, these apps offered radically different ways to communicate, collaborate, and write.

Skiff offers the same - but privately, with an end-to-end encrypted workspace. Over the course of 2022, we launched 

Today, Skiff products offer a feature-complete solution to the Google and Microsoft style productivity suites for communicating and collaborating. Larger teams can also take advantage of custom domains, shared teams, and shared links for collaborating externally.

 with Pro and Business tiers for individuals, families, and teams. Skiff’s paid tiers offer more storage space (up to one terabyte per user), extra email aliases (up to fifteen per user), additional version history, and shorter email aliases.

Most of all, we are grateful to the individuals who use our products and join our communities across 

Skiff named top 25 app of 2022

Today, we learned that Skiff has been banned in Russia.

There is an urgent need for more privacy-respecting communication tools. Over the 7 months since we launched Skiff Mail — private, end-to-end encrypted email — we have seen eager adoption from people who value their privacy all over the world. The platform now counts more than half a million users.

, it appears that Skiff was banned alongside other end-to-end encrypted services. This yields many consequences for users in Russia or the region:

They may be unable to load skiff.com, or our products at app.skiff.com.
Other Russian email servers may be unable to send or receive mail from Skiff.

We’re currently unaware of how widely felt this consequence is.

Additional Skiff products and services, such as Skiff mobile apps, may also function unreliably or not at all in Russia.

As today’s block shows, it’s often the people who could benefit most from privacy that face the steepest odds in accessing it. We’ve been working with our advising team to see how we can restore service in Russia. We’re happy to make our technical team available to help you or your organization. Unsurprisingly, no additional information or context was provided, and the block appears to be completely arbitrary.

Skiff is a private, end-to-end encrypted workspace with Mail, Calendar, Docs, and Drive products for individuals and teams to work securely. We support journalists, companies, and nonprofits all over the world.

If you are an existing Skiff user having trouble using our services, please contact us (see many methods in the FAQ below). We also recommend different methods for accessing Skiff when blocked, such as using a VPN.

We recommend using Skiff as well as other end-to-end encrypted, privacy-first services no matter the country you are in.

Below, we included some FAQ on the block, both for Skiff users in Russia and for those who are around the world.

Does this change Skiff’s day-to-day operations? 

Not at all - if anything, this update strengthens our resolve to build the best privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted workspace and empower people to work freely.

? Contact us at hello@skiff.org, DM us on Twitter, join our Discord, or post on our subreddit.

Update on Russia blocking Skiff

 “Encrypted Email Company Skiff Wants You To Sign Out Of Google Workspace Forever” announcing the launch of Skiff Calendar and Drive to the public.

In only one year, we’ve launched four products - 

 - and signed up over a quarter million people to our private, end-to-end encrypted email, collaboration, and communication products.

 for using Skiff products on your native devices.

We’re incredibly grateful to Skiff’s users, Pro subscribers, and Business users, as well as to our tens of thousands of community members across our 

Calendar and Drive Launch in Forbes

The Skiff Drive iOS app is launched! Download it at 

. Skiff Drive is a platform for end-to-end encrypted file storage and sharing. You can upload, view, share, and download files of any type, from documents to Excel spreadsheets. In this blog, we’ll walk through some of the capabilities of the new Skiff Drive mobile app.

Our digital files store more personal information than our homes. From medical records and personal journals to job applications and client reports, drive storage holds our life’s work and history.

Skiff is an end-to-end encrypted, privacy-first workspace for your most sensitive work. Given this mission to empower the world to work more freely and effectively - to be people, and not products - drive storage for files and data is a core, critical part of this mission.

Earlier this year, we launched the first 

 of Skiff Drive to enable uploading and viewing files on the web. Today, we make Skiff Drive simpler, more powerful, and more intuitive with the launch of an end-to-end encrypted file storage app for iOS.

Cloud storage enables users to upload files, data, and other information into servers operated by cloud providers. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.

Cloud storage services can be utilized from a public network, private network, or hybrid network of both public and private access. Cloud storage often provides data redundancy, storing identical copies of data in multiple physical locations to protect data in the event of equipment failure or natural disasters. Users can access data stored on remote servers by using a web browser or a mobile app.

As we store more and more sensitive or personal data in the cloud, it becomes critically important to make sure that our data is properly secured. End-to-end encrypted cloud storage is the highest standard in cloud storage security and ensures that your data is safe from prying eyes.

Everything on Skiff Drive is end-to-end encrypted and private to you

By encrypting your data before it is uploaded to the cloud with keys that are known only to you, Skiff Drive will ensure that only you and shared recipients can ever access your data. This is especially important for businesses who may store customer or client data in the cloud. By encrypting that data, businesses can help ensure that their customers' information is safe, increasing trust for all users.

Immediately on opening the Skiff Drive app, the interface allows for direct upload of files using the upload button in the bottom right corner. Simply tap this button to start uploading files to your Workspace.

After you’ve selected a file, you are taken to an in-app viewer, which can preview most types of commonly shared files. In the top right corner, the Share button allows you to share the file with other Skiff users, or to generate a shareable link that can be transmitted in any messaging app (or via 

On Skiff Drive, you can also download files to your device, including in the new iOS app. This enables sending, receiving, and downloading files for offline use or later viewing.

Every Skiff user is granted 10 GB in free storage for mail, files, notes, and more. For more storage, you can upgrade to the Pro plan for 100 GB of storage, and 1 TB of storage on the Business plan.

If you have feedback on this first release, please feel free to contact us at support@skiff.org, DM us on 

 and send a message to the group. We also wrote a longer blog on 

 and a lengthy technical overview on why end-to-end encryption 

Skiff Drive iOS app launched

Blocking remote content limits the amount of information marketers could discern about whether your emails are being opened and read. To enable remote content blocking on any Skiff Mail application (web, desktop, or mobile), visit settings, and then the “security” section. Toggle “block remote content” to be enabled.

Remote content is any data - images, fonts, or style sheets - that is not contained within the email body itself. Many emails contain only text - a few sentences sent to a contact, or a series of question and answer replied. However, marketing emails, sales emails, and cold outreach emails frequently contain remote content (images, tracking pixels, or other data loaded from an external URL) that can be used to track users.

As described in our technical blog about 

, this content can be used to determine open rates, mail deliverability, and more information for email marketers. In some cases, remote content can leak or reveal device information, IP address, or other highly sensitive personal information.

Skiff Mail built to be a comprehensive, privacy-first solution to protect your personal data and confidentiality. Thus, beyond end-to-end encryption keeping your email content and subjects private to you, blocking any sort of remote tracking is critical to user privacy.

Remote content is hosted on an external server and not contained within the email content itself. For example, a heading image hosted on another site or a font required to render an email could be hosted by the company sending the email to your inbox.

All of this remote content requires your inbox to make a download request to the third party hosted content to properly render the email. In some cases, emails can be composed almost entirely of remote content, making it impossible to read mail without rendering this data.

However, the server hosting this content could easily implement tracking technology to observe when this content is downloaded. As a result, the email sender could observe and track when emails are opened by knowing when external content is downloading.

We’ve covered more information on how emails can be used to track you in our blog on 

. By disabling all remote content loading by default, these requests are not sent to download content until you click the download button, giving you more control over your email privacy.

How else does Skiff Mail protect your inbox?

Skiff Mail is privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted email that keeps your inbox private to you. All mail sent to other Skiff users is completely end-to-end encrypted, including both email subject and content. Furthermore, mail sent or received externally is encrypted with your account’s public key, ensuring that only you - and no one else, not even Skiff - have access to your messages.

Blocking and proxying remote content downloads adds another layer of intuitive, simple privacy protections to your inbox. While most large mail providers, including Yahoo, Gmail, and Outlook, do not even offer this option, Skiff Mail makes privacy simple and accessible, keeping you in control of your data.

To enable remote content blocking, visit the 

 and toggle “Block remote content” to the enabled position. Then, whenever an email contains remote content, you’ll see a button at the top to download it when you choose.

Is blocking remote content available on the Free plan?

Yes! All Skiff Mail users can enable remote content blocking from the Security settings tab.

Yes. You can enable remote content blocking on any of the Skiff Mail apps on iOS, Android, and macOS.

Once loading remote content, are my device and location revealed?

No. Once you choose to load remote content, it is still proxied through a relay server to prevent any information about your device, IP address, location, or other personal information from being shared.

Block trackers and remote content on Skiff Mail

Have you already upgraded to the Pro or Business plan and need some quick tips on setting up a custom email domain? You’ve come to the right place.

This blog covers how to connect your domain name to your account, add aliases for you and your colleagues, and create a business email or personal address with your own, custom domain name.

First, visit the Mail custom domains settings page: Click settings, then click “Custom domains.” On mobile, click the gear icon in the top right, and then “Setup domain” (yes, you can configure custom domains from mobile as well).

Then, click “add domain,” and type in your domain name. Click “next,” and wait for the loading spinner to finish loading.

Now, you’ll be on a screen with a list of DNS records for your domain, including an MX record, two TXT records, and two CNAME records. You’ll need to add all of these records to your domain from your hosting provider.

Once you’ve navigated to your hosting provider or domain registrar, add each record for your domain. Note that 

you must have the Skiff MX record at priority zero

, and the other records must be copied in perfectly for your domain to verify properly.

After copying in all of the records, that’s it! Wait approximately five to ten minutes for your records to publish, then for Skiff to verify them.

You’ve verified your custom domain. What’s next?

You can now add any number of aliases for that domain from the custom domains settings page. First, click “add alias” next to your domain. Then, in the popup, type in your desired alias, which can even be 

! From there, you’ll want to type in an alias, and then click “add.” You’ll see the alias show up below your custom domain.

From there, you can now send and receive mail using this alias on your custom domain!

Now, what if you want to add multiple users with aliases for your custom domain? This is a common case for business email addresses.

First, add people to your workspace from your Skiff Pages or Drive dashboard (

). Click settings, then your workspace name, and “add members.” Or, share your “Everyone” team. New users will need a new account to join your workspace.

From there, all users added to your workspace will be able to add aliases on any custom domains you’ve verified for that workspace. Once you’ve added users to your workspace, Skiff can become a great email provider for businesses, teams, families, and other organizations that seek to have email accounts for team members with a shared domain name. Startups can also leverage our 

 program, which provides up to $1,000 of credit for your organization to join on the Pro or Business plans.

. We’re also available at support@skiff.org.

Quick guide: Get your custom domain set up

 and onboarded your team to your new, privacy-first workspace. How can you set up a shared custom domain for you and your colleagues to communicate internally and externally?

How to create a workspace and invite your team

To create your workspace and share the rest of your team, we recommend referencing our blog on “How to invite your team to Skiff.” That blog covers the signup process and how to use the organization settings page (

https://app.skiff.com/dashboard?settingTab=organization

) to send invite links that can be used to join your team. Find the full blog 

For a quick overview tutorial: First, sign up at Skiff’s signup page (

); then, visit the settings page and click your workspace name. There, customize your workspace name and icon, and then invite other team members to join.

To share a custom domain, you must invite your team to the workspace, not just to a single Skiff Page or folder

. Every workspace member will be able to use shared custom domains.

As a first step, you will need to upgrade your account to be on Skiff’s 

, which enable adding up to two (Pro tier) or five (Business tier) custom domains.

Then, you need to visit the mail custom domains 

, or click settings and then “Custom domains” from inside your inbox. After entering in your domain name, Skiff will provide DNS records (TXT records, CNAME records, and an MX record) for you to add to your domain registrar.

Once your records are added and published, Skiff will indicate that your domain is “verified,” which is necessary before you can add aliases to this domain. Note that all of these records must be published to ensure mail is sent and received safely and reliably.

We’ve also written a much longer, step-by-step blog on how to set up a custom domain - find it 

Once you have shared your workspace and have a verified custom domain, you can add aliases using this domain from the Mail custom domains settings page.

Unlike @skiff.com aliases, which must be four characters or longer (on Pro or Business tiers) and cannot contain certain characters, custom domain aliases have far fewer restrictions and can even be one letter!

Your colleagues in your workspace will also be able to add custom domain aliases, so you can add a@co.com, b@co.com, and even sales@, marketing@, business@, and more.

If you have questions or need support at any time, please reach out to us at support@skiff.org. In particular, we can help check on your custom domain verification, workspace paid plan status, and assist with any problems that may arise with aliases or DNS providers.

. Thank you for using Skiff, and we hope to deliver privacy-first, intuitive products to you and your team.

Yes - your workspace can have up to two domains if you are on the Pro plan, or five domains if you are on the Business plan. Once multiple domains are added, you will be able to both send and receive mail at any verified domains.

Is there a limit to the number of aliases per domain?

There is no limit to the number of aliases you can add per custom domain.

What characters can be added to a custom domain alias?

 aliases, you have much more flexibility on adding custom domain aliases, and you can even add one character (a@domain.com) aliases for you and your other team members.

Emailing support@skiff.org is the best way to get quick help on adding your MX, CNAME, and TXT records properly.

Skiff in the WSJ on encryption

Related articles

Join the community