As part of our mission(nieuw venster) to help everyone access digital privacy, we’ve been continuously evolving Proton VPN. To ensure you don’t miss anything, here’s a look at what we achieved during the first half of this year, what we’re working on now, and what’s coming.
What Proton VPN delivered in spring and summer
It’s been a busy year here at Proton VPN, and we’re pleased to say that we’ve been able to fulfill many of the more popular requests from our community. Recent improvements include:
Stealth protocol for Windows
Our unique Stealth(nieuw venster) VPN protocol allows you to bypass advanced VPN blocks, access censored sites, and communicate with people on social media, even if your government is trying to restrict access. Already available on most other platforms, Stealth is now available on Windows.
Discrete app icons on Android
To help keep our community safe, Proton VPN allows you to replace the Proton VPN app icon with an innocuous-looking icon(nieuw venster) that’s unlikely to be noticed if your Android device is searched.
WireGuard support for Linux
In addition to OpenVPN, our Linux app now supports WireGuard(nieuw venster). Fast and lightweight, but also highly secure, this modern VPN protocol supersedes most older standards and is available on all our other apps. Now it’s also available on our Linux app.
Split tunneling improvements
Split tunneling(nieuw venster) allows you to route some connections through the VPN tunnel while excluding others. This means, for example, when traveling, you can watch local content using your real IP address in one app and your favorite shows, moves, and sports events using an IP address from home in another.
On Android, you can now either exclude apps and IP addresses from the VPN tunnel or include them (inverse mode). We also brought split tunneling (with both standard and inverse modes) to Android TV.
IPv6
Every device that connects directly to the internet has a unique IP address(nieuw venster). Unfortunately, almost all IPv4 addresses (still the most-used standard today) are now used up. IPv6 solves this problem by hugely expanding the number of IP addresses available. Proton VPN is beginning to offer full IPv6 support to address this pressing issue and to support our community.
The majority of our servers are now IPv6 compatible, and we have added IPv6 support(nieuw venster) to our browser extensions and our Linux app (a landmark for us, this is the first time we’ve released a feature on Linux before other platforms).
Guest mode for Android
Our new guest mode(nieuw venster) for Android allows you to use our Android app without signing up for a Proton Account. Perfect for when you quickly need a VPN to get a job done.
Apple TV app
The Apple TV app was ready in summer as planned (and we published the open-source code(nieuw venster) in September). But in full transparency, it was stuck in Apple’s review process for several weeks, leading to disappointing delays. The good news is that after working closely with Apple, Proton VPN for Apple TV is now published and available on the app store(nieuw venster).
With the Apple TV app, you can easily and securely watch your favorite shows, films, and sports events on your big-screen TV via your Apple TV, no matter where you are.
Proton for Business
We’ve greatly expanded our support for businesses. Organizations can now lease dedicated VPN servers(nieuw venster) with static IP addresses, providing secure segmented access to on-site and SaaS resources. They can also use single sign-on (SSO) technology to allow users to access multiple applications and websites with a single username and password and manage users’ Android and Windows devices using mobile device management(nieuw venster) (MDM).
In addition to new features, we’ve also responded to community requests by working on our infrastructure. The Proton VPN network has:
- Added over 4000 new servers(nieuw venster), including in 45 new countries, and in additional cities in existing countries
- Become one of the fastest VPN services in the world
So you talked, and we’ve listened. We’re even more excited, however, about what’s coming over the next few months.
What is coming up in the fall
Improved Stealth and Anti-Censorship
In October, we have already made two rounds of improvements to how our iOS and iPad apps circumvent blocks in countries where the internet is censored, with more enhancements to come across all of our supported platforms.
ARM support for Windows
The M-series ARM-based “Apple Silicon” chips have been a game-changer for Mac users, improving both performance and battery life. The recent release of Microsoft’s ARM-based Surface Laptop 7th Edition is likely the starter gun for major Windows PC manufacturers to follow suit.
To support our entire community, including those upgrading to Windows PCs featuring the new chipset, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve now released a native ARM version of our Windows app(nieuw venster) that offers all the advanced features available on our existing (x64) Windows app.
The following new features are also almost ready, so you can expect them over the next few weeks:
New iOS widget
Our new and improved iOS widget will allow you to check your connection status and get quick access to recent servers.
More streaming support
We currently support streaming(nieuw venster) on more than 60 popular national and international platforms. And over the next few weeks (and months), we’ll be continuously expanding this selection based on requests from our user community.
And more…
The following will also be ready soon:
- Battery life improvements on our mobile apps
- Enhanced VPN profiles that make it easier to quickly connect to the location you want in exactly the way you want
Our product roadmap for winter
Taking a longer view, we have several other exciting features under active development on our roadmap.
Custom DNS for Android, macOS, iOS and iPadOS, and Linux
We recommend that everyone allow Proton VPN to resolve DNS lookups(nieuw venster) for maximum privacy and security and use NetShield Ad-blocker(nieuw venster) to block ads, trackers, and malware. However, for those who prefer using a third-party DNS service, we’ll bring the Custom DNS option currently available in our Windows app to Android, macOS, iOS, and Linux.
IPv6 support in more apps
We already support IPv6 on our browser extensions and Linux app. We’ll start releasing it over the next few months.
Port forwarding on macOS and Linux
Port forwarding routes connections through the firewall that Proton VPN uses to protect our customers. It’s a feature that’s mainly useful to people who download and share files using P2P protocols such as BitTorrent, although it can also improve performance for online gamers.
It’s currently available on our Windows app, with partial support on our Linux app (which requires some manual configuration). Over the next few months (potentially into spring), we’ll introduce full port forwarding support on our macOS and Linux apps.
Guest mode for iOS and iPadOS
In June, to make Proton VPN’s anti-censorship features more accessible, we made it possible to log in to the Android app without creating an account. We’ll bring this popular feature to your iPhone and iPad.
New Windows and iOS/iPadOS apps
Our new Windows app not only looks great, but its increased functionality will include some of the most commonly requested features from Proton User Voice(nieuw venster), including sorting servers by server load, selecting a server based on its city (not country), hiding our free servers if you’re on a paid plan‚ and more.
We’ll also refresh the look and feel of our app for iPhones and iPads.
Split tunneling on macOS (with Linux to follow)
Split tunneling allows you to route some connections through the VPN tunnel and some connections outside it. Already available on Windows and Android, this popular feature will soon be coming to macOS. We’re also not leaving Linux users out, although this will follow later.
More new privacy features
With privacy always at our core, we’re working on new features to improve your privacy online. We can’t reveal what they are now, but we’re excited about them. Follow Proton VPN on X (Twitter)(nieuw venster), LinkedIn(nieuw venster), Mastodon(nieuw venster), or our blog(nieuw venster) to keep up with our latest news.
We’re always working to protect your privacy online
Although some of our client apps are more advanced than others in terms of features and functionality, it is on our long-range roadmap to bring feature parity across all of our supported platforms as part of our commitment to bring the best of Proton VPN to our entire user community.
Also in our sights are other longer-term projects, such as expanding our server network to new cities in the USA and UK and ensuring people in even more remote locations experience the blazing-fast speed performance already enjoyed by most of our community.
We’re also working to improve ping rates for those of you who use Proton VPN for gaming, and we haven’t forgotten the need for a Linux CLI.
We hope you’re as excited about our roadmap as we are.
