Over the next few months we will see the end of Google VPN within the Google One service for any subscription plan and for both mobile devices and computers (Windows and Mac), while the VPN will remain available for Pixel phones starting from the 7 series.
The announcement was teased by 9to5Google, but a notice appeared on a support page for Pixel phones saying: “After VPN by Google One is phased out in 2024, owners of Pixel 7 and newer devices will continue to have access to Google’s VPN service via the Pixel’s built-in VPN at no additional cost”.
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Google explained to 9to5Google the reason for its decision: “We found that people just weren’t using it”. Eliminating the VPN will allow the team to focus on and support more popular features of Google One, the company said.
Google’s VPN does not allow you to choose the location of the VPN server connection, preventing some uses of these services by users, including bypassing geographical restrictions to access content blocked in certain regions.
Most Google VPN users (at this point, a few) use the service primarily to protect their online privacy when connecting to public Wi-Fi.
As mentioned, although the VPN will disappear from Android and iOS phones and from Windows and Mac computers within the app of the same name (which should therefore cease its distribution in the coming months), it will remain active in Pixel 7 phones and subsequent models.
It was introduced in Google smartphones in 2022 with the launch of Pixel 7, while the birth of Google VPN dates back to October 2020. Here is the whitepaper in Italian that explains how it works.
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