How to use a VPN on iPhone

With worldwide government regulations increasingly cracking down on what content is available, and various streaming services increasingly locking content behind geographic paywalls, more and more people are turning to VPNs.

Setting up a VPN used to be complicated, but in the last decade, the process has become incredibly streamlined. Here’s how to set up and use a VPN on your iPhone.

What is a VPN for?

A VPN is a virtual private network. VPNs act as a private encrypted tunnel for all network traffic. This means even your internet service provider cannot see what websites you are visiting, when using a VPN to browse the web.

Traditionally, using a VPN was all about privacy and security. More recently, people use VPNs to shield their actual location and appear as if they are another part of the world, to avoid local content restrictions.

For instance, you can use a VPN to access streaming services that are normally unavailable in your region. Similarly, VPNs have become very popular in the United Kingdom lately following the introduction of new laws that force websites to hide content with adult themes, unless users verify their identity. Rather than doing the identity checks, people are using a VPN to appear as if they are visiting from outside of the UK, and that means none of the restrictions are applied.

Choose a VPN app for iPhone

To use a VPN on iPhone, you first need to choose a VPN provider. VPN providers typically vary in server locations, speed, and how much they charge, but they mostly all do the same thing. Here’s some recommended options to choose from:

Once you have signed up for an account with one of the providers above, download the company’s corresponding app from the App Store onto your device. Log in to your account inside the app. The quick-access VPN settings in the system are now available.

Before enabling the VPN at the system level, use the app to configure service-specific features. This includes things like choosing your virtual location. So, if you are actually in the US but trying to pretend to be from Algeria, select an Algerian server in the app UI.

Most apps also have automatic options for ‘Fastest connection’ if you don’t care about the geographic masking, but just want to improve your device security.

How to enable VPN on iPhone

• With a VPN app installed, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
• A VPN row will appear in the first group of settings in the list on the home page of the Settings app.
• Switch the VPN toggle from off to on.
• When enabled, a VPN indicator will briefly appear in the status bar. Open Control Center to see the VPN icon later to confirm the VPN service is still active.

You can now use your iPhone like you normally would. All internet traffic will be routed through the VPN service, ensuring all traffic is obscured and masked from prying eyes.

You may need to force-quit and relaunch apps like Reddit in order for the geographic detection to take effect. For example, Reddit now hides the ‘Anonymous Browsing’ mode if it sees the user is coming from the UK. But if you turn on your VPN with your country server set somewhere else, then force-quit and relaunch the Reddit app, the ‘Anonymous Browsing’ feature is available again.

You can disable the VPN at any time by going back into Settings and turning off the VPN toggle. You can also explore advanced functionality in the dedicated VPN provider app.

Typically, you won’t want to use a VPN all the time because they offer slower connection speeds than if you were directly connecting to your home broadband. But iOS makes it very convenient to configure a VPN service, and toggle it on and off only when you need it. As long as the app remains installed on your device, the VPN toggle will persist in the Settings app.

If you are wanting to frequently stream high-resolution video or other bandwidth-intensive tasks using the VPN, you may want to try other providers or try other servers. Performance varies wildly depending on how much you pay and where you are connecting to.