People all over the world use Proton VPN to reach the content they want without anyone following them — it’s their front door to the internet. And we rely on your feedback to make sure Proton VPN has the features and performance you need.
Now that warm weather and longer days are upon (most of) us, we want to revisit our spring and summer roadmap and highlight the improvements and features you might have missed and what we’ll be working on over summer.
What we launched in spring
You’ve told us what matters most — so this spring, that’s where our focus went. The features you rely on got smarter, faster, and easier to use, with updates inspired by your feedback.
Greater protection from phishing with NetShield Ad-blocker
Have you ever clicked on a link that takes you to a suspicious website or downloads files you never asked for? Our NetShield Ad-blocker DNS filtering feature has always protected you from a wide range of malware and unwanted trackers, but now you can rely on it for even more protection from malicious actors.
Recent improvements to NetShield ensure that it now blocks almost all known phishing(新しいウィンドウ) domains (while minimizing “false positives”), making the internet safer and more enjoyable for you to explore.
Longer lasting batteries
Now you can browse the internet safely, wherever you have reception, without worrying about your smartphone dying. Recent improvements to our Android and iOS apps minimize their background usage when the phone is asleep, conserving battery life when you’re out in the world and using a mobile (cellular) connection.
High-speed browsing for everyone
No one enjoys buffering. Unfortunately, a combination of network conditions and configurations used to prevent some of our community members from gaining the full benefit of Proton VPN’s high-speed VPN network.
With a major improvement to our unique VPN Accelerator technology that can improve speeds by up to 400% compared to other VPN services, Proton VPN now detects these conditions and configurations occurring. It will then automatically reconfigure the connection to ensure you can stream your favorite HD content without buffering issues, enjoy blazing fast page load times, and fully benefit from the bandwidth you pay for.
And lots more
- Choose from 3,000+ additional servers, five new countries (Panama, Armenia, Mongolia, Laos, and Brunei), and two new US cities (Memphis, Tennessee, and McAllen, Texas) for your VPN connection. This means our network now has over 13,000 servers in more than 120 countries, making us not just one of the largest and most popular VPN services in the world, but also one of the fastest growing.
- Stream more of your favorite content no matter where you are. You can now watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ in most countries worldwide.
- Access other devices on your local network, like smart devices, printers, washing machines, without disconnecting Proton VPN in our Windows and Android apps.
- Following the recent redesign of our Windows app, you can now effortlessly connect to your favorite location at any time without opening the main Proton VPN app. Simply use our new system tray widget to connect without interrupting your flow.
- Customize our app’s appearance with our new light theme for Android.
What’s coming this summer
Behind-the-scenes upgrades are critical to providing a great VPN experience, but we know you want all our great features on all the devices you love to use every day. So coming soon:
Custom DNS for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS
Normally, when you connect to Proton VPN, we encrypt and resolve your DNS queries. Custom DNS lets you choose one or more third-party DNS resolvers instead, allowing you to access their advanced DNS filtering features, such as parental controls and customized blocklists.
Custom DNS is coming to your Apple devices very soon, so be sure to look out for more updates.
Split Tunneling for Linux and macOS
Split tunneling lets you route some connections through the VPN tunnel while excluding others. For example, you can bypass censorship using a VPN connection for your browser while allowing your banking, streaming, and government services apps to access the local internet. Or use a VPN only for specific purposes, like protecting your torrenting sessions or changing your location when gaming.
Soon, you’ll be able to use split tunneling on Linux and macOS.
Port Forwarding for macOS
You’ll soon see faster transfer speeds when you download and share files using P2P protocols such as BitTorrent on your Mac. You may also see speed improvements as an online gamer. This is thanks to port forwarding, which routes connections through the Proton VPN firewall. Already available on our Windows and Linux apps, this is a feature many of you Mac users have been asking for.
And lots more
Also coming over the summer are:
- More improvements to our anti-censorship capabilities: Censorship is becoming more and more prevalent online, which is why we’re expanding methods to help you connect securely and access our service in countries with robust censorship capabilities.
- Even better VPN connection profiles on Windows and Android: You’ll be able to make even more customized profiles, as we build upon recent improvements to VPN connection profiles.
- Guest mode for iOS and iPadOS: Get instantly connected without a Proton account.
- IPv6 support for more platforms: This will ensure full compatibility with the growing number of internet providers using IPv6-only connections.
- More ways to pay: Due to popular demand and to make Proton VPN accessible to more people, we’re adding new ways to buy our service. This includes additional cryptocurrency payment options.
- More features for Android TV: Some of the community’s most popular requests, these features will give you more control over how you watch your favorite content on your big-screen TV.
- Improved support for F1 TV. You’ll soon be able to watch your favorite Formula 1 racing channel safely and securely in more countries worldwide.
An end-of-year sneak peek
We’re also actively working on the following improvements and hope (but can’t promise) to release them later this year:
- A command-line interface (CLI) on Linux. We’ll also be exploring GUI improvements.
- Optimizations and customizations for gamers for a faster and more responsive gaming experience.
- More new features to combat emerging privacy threats online.
We exist because of you
As always, we are deeply indebted to the passionate and highly engaged Proton community for your ideas and your enthusiasm. We couldn’t do this without you, and we’re always looking for ways to improve our products.
So please share your thoughts with us on Reddit(新しいウィンドウ) or X(新しいウィンドウ), or join our community at protonmail.uservoice.com(新しいウィンドウ). Together, we’ll build a privacy-first internet that works for everyone
