In the last few days, ProtonVPN has beefed-up its mobile offering, updating apps or iOS and Android with cool new features. Let’s see what these updates are all about, shall we?
ProtonVPN’s Android app gets Smart Protocol
Smart Protocol works automatically to make sure you can stay connected to ProtonVPN, even when someone is trying to block your access. It is one of those features that makes your life easier without you even noticing.
When ProtonVPN detects that something’s wrong with the network — i.e. a VPN may be blocked — the Smart Protocol feature will automatically kick in and try to connect through a different VPN protocol.
Before this update, Android users had to manually switch protocols; that is no longer the case and Smart Protocol is enabled by default in the app.
ProtonVPN’s Android app supports IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols, and will be switching between the two in order to keep you connected to the Internet. If, for some reason, you don’t like this feature — you can always disable it from the Settings screen.
In order to get the Smart Protocol, all you have to do is update your ProtonVPN app on your Android device. And… that’s it.
ProtonVPN iOS app gets OpenVPN protocol support
As you may already know, the OpenVPN protocol is one of the best VPN protocols out there, offering flexibility and security out of the box. Also, it is more resistant to blocks.
However, ProtonVPN’s iOS app didn’t support it in the past; that is no longer the case with iPhone and iPad users now being able to switch between the faster IKEv2 protocol and the more stable and censorship-resistant OpenVPN protocol.
The mentioned flexibility of the OpenVPN protocol stems from its ability to work with two transport protocols: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the former being more stable and the latter – faster.
By default, OpenVPN connects via UDP but if you have a weak Internet connection you might be better off switching to TCP.
For what it matters, OpenVPN is also our favorite protocol.
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Next up for ProtonVPN is to bring the Smart Protocol feature to its iOS and macOS apps. Since it is already working on Windows and Android, we expect it to be released sooner rather than later.
Pros
Cons
- Easy to use apps for popular platforms
- Works with Netflix and Hulu
- Dedicated servers for Tor and torrenting
- There's a free version of the service
- No live chat support
- Doesn't work well with BBC iPlayer