Even tech giants sometimes have to review their offerings and make changes to their product portfolio, and this doesn’t happen infrequently at Google. An email to Google One users (read by Android Authority) revealed that is shutting down its Google One VPN service by the end of 2024.
Introduced at the end of 2020 and arriving in Italy only last year, the Google One VPN offers subscribers the possibility of protect their privacy online by masking IP addresses and offering encrypted transfers. With prices starting at 1.99, the service was available on several platforms, including Android, iOS, Mac and Windows. However, according to Google, “people just weren’t using it”.
Google One VPN will be “turned off” by the end of the year
In addition to Google One VPN, the company also provides VPN services through Google Fi and on Pixel 7 and above devices. These services will continue to function, unless dedicated communications from the company. There Google One VPN shutdown marks the entry of another service into the infamous “Google graveyard”where the projects abandoned by the company end up.
The news comes shortly after reaching the goal of 100 million subscribers for Google One, but that wasn’t enough to keep its VPN service alive. In the email Google said that it is “focusing on delivering the most requested features and benefits”, and probably the reference to the integration of Gemini into Google One. Sundar Pichai himself, CEO of Alphabet, recently indicated that AI itself would have driven the growth of the platform.
