Proton is giving its privacy-focused AI chatbot a broader role. Lumo 2.0 adds image tools, expands its Projects feature, and introduces a new mode for more complex requests, while the company continues to frame privacy as the product’s main point of difference.
The upgrade matters because it moves Lumo closer to the everyday utility users expect from major AI chatbots. At the same time, Proton is trying to make the case that stronger AI features do not have to come at the expense of user control over data.
What Lumo 2.0 Adds
Lumo was released as a public AI chatbot last year by Proton, the privacy-focused productivity app company. On Tuesday, the chatbot received an upgrade that gives it several new capabilities.
The biggest additions are image recognition and image generation. Users can now upload pictures into Lumo and ask the chatbot to analyze or edit them. Lumo can also generate imagery from a user’s prompt, placing it in the same broad category of multimodal AI tools as other large language model products.
These changes expand Lumo beyond text-only conversations. A user can bring visual material into a chat, ask questions about it, request edits, or generate a new image based on a description. The source article does not describe limits or supported image formats, so the practical boundaries of the feature will depend on Proton’s implementation.
Projects Gets Memory Across Sessions
Version 2.0 also changes how Lumo works with Projects. Projects is the widget that allows users to upload documents and work through Proton’s other products, including email and cloud storage.
Projects now includes user-controlled persistent memory. In practical terms, that means Lumo can remember a user’s preferences across different conversational sessions, rather than treating every session as fully separate.
That kind of memory can make an assistant more useful in recurring workflows. If a user repeatedly works with documents, email or cloud storage through Proton’s ecosystem, the ability to recall preferences may reduce repeated setup and make later sessions feel more consistent.
The key detail is that Proton describes this memory as user-controlled. The source does not provide more specifics about the controls, but the phrase signals that memory is meant to be part of the user’s choices rather than an invisible background process.
Faster Replies And A New Thinking Mode
Proton also says Lumo 2.0 is significantly more powerful than the previous version. According to the company, version 2.0 responds to most queries up to 76% faster than its earlier iteration.
Speed is a practical feature for AI chatbots. Faster responses can make the difference between a tool that feels useful in daily work and one that becomes a slower step in the process. Proton is presenting the upgrade as both broader in capability and quicker in ordinary use.
Lumo 2.0 also introduces a new “thinking mode” for more complex problems or questions. The source article does not detail exactly how the mode works, but the positioning is clear: regular queries can be handled quickly, while harder tasks can use a dedicated mode.
“Lumo 2.0 has been re-engineered from the ground up and the introduction of thinking mode gives it powerful new capabilities,” said Andy Yen, founder and CEO at Proton. “Lumo 2.0 demonstrates that users no longer need to choose between powerful AI capabilities and meaningful privacy protections.”
How Proton Positions Lumo Against Other Chatbots
The public version of Lumo appears roughly equivalent to other major chatbots in terms of usefulness, according to the source article. It answers questions in a format similar to Gemini and ChatGPT, with approximately the same level of detail and context.
That makes Proton’s differentiator less about the basic chat interface and more about its privacy model. The company says Lumo uses zero-access encryption architecture, with user data encrypted in transit and at rest and access limited to the user.
Proton also claims that no server-side logging of sessions is retained. The company says nobody at Proton can see the contents of conversations. It also says customer data will never be used for AI training or shared with third-parties.
Those claims are central to how Proton wants Lumo to be understood. The upgrade adds the kinds of features people associate with leading AI chatbots, but the product pitch is still built around privacy protections, data limits and user control.
Availability And Paid Access
Lumo 2.0 is available immediately. Proton offers a free public version, as well as paid tiers called Plus and Professional.
The paid tiers give users significantly more access and resources. The source does not specify the exact limits, pricing or feature differences, so the clearest takeaway is that Proton is keeping Lumo available to the public while reserving expanded usage for paying customers.
For users already inside Proton’s productivity tools, the update makes Lumo more capable across documents, email, cloud storage and visual content. For users comparing AI chatbots, the question is whether Lumo’s privacy promises are enough to stand out in a market where image tools, faster answers and complex reasoning modes are becoming expected features.