VPN for Android: How to Set Up and Use One

Android gives VPN apps a system interface called VpnService. When you connect, the app creates a virtual network interface and Android sends your apps' internet traffic through it, on Wi-Fi and on mobile data. The traffic travels encrypted to the VPN server, and websites see the server's IP address instead of yours. Your mobile carrier or the owner of a public Wi-Fi network can see that you are connected to a VPN, but not the pages you open inside the tunnel. A VPN does not sign you out of anything: Google, social networks and shops still know who you are when you are logged in. It also does not change your Google account or Google Play country, which follow your account and payment details rather than your IP address.

Open VPN Wave and choose a location, or keep the optimal location the app suggests, then tap connect. The first time, VPN Wave explains how it routes your traffic, and then Android shows its own connection request asking whether to let the app set up a VPN connection. Tap OK. Android shows this prompt for every VPN app, and it is how the system makes sure no app can route your traffic without your consent. When the tunnel is up, a key icon appears in the status bar and VPN Wave shows a notification while the VPN is running. To disconnect, open the app and tap disconnect. If you later connect with a different VPN app, Android turns VPN Wave off, because only one VPN can be active at a time.

Android has two system settings for VPN apps, under the gear icon next to the app in VPN settings. Always-on VPN asks Android to start that app's VPN when the phone turns on and to keep it running. Block connections without VPN, also called lockdown mode, is Android's system-level kill switch: whenever the VPN is not connected, apps get no internet access at all, so nothing leaves the phone outside the tunnel. Whether Always-on works depends on the VPN app handling a start from the system, and not every app does. Test it before you rely on it: turn on Always-on VPN only, restart the phone and check that the key icon appears without opening the app. Turn on blocking only after that test passes. With blocking on and the VPN off, having no internet is the setting working as designed, not a fault.

Before you connect, open the VPN Wave IP checker in Chrome and note your IP address and country. Connect, reload the page and compare: the IP should now belong to the VPN server, and the country should match the location you picked. Then run the VPN leak test, which checks whether your browser still reveals your original address through WebRTC or through an IPv6 connection outside the tunnel. If the IP did not change, look for the key icon in the status bar, make sure no other VPN app is connected and try another location. If websites stop loading only while the VPN is on and you have set a custom provider under Settings > Network & internet > Private DNS, switch Private DNS to Automatic and test again.