At this point, most of us have some kind of VPN installed on our home PCs. Once the sole preserve of the nerdiest and most paranoid internet users, VPNs are now entirely commonplace.
That’s because they’re simply too useful not to be.
Weirdly, though, this phenomenon doesn’t seem to have reached our smartphones in quite the same way—even though our smartphones are the computers we tend to use most often.
We’re here to tell you why you need to get a VPN on your mobile as soon as you possibly can.
But first.
What Is a VPN?
A VPN is a virtual private network. It replaces your IP address—the string of numbers associated with your machine that can tell others where you live, what you do online, and more—with a random IP address associated with an anonymous server.
And not just any anonymous server. A good VPN lets you connect to servers in countries around the world. This not only shields your online identity from prying eyes, but also allows you to pretend you live somewhere else.
Your computer is a window onto the world, and a VPN lets you magically pop that window in Germany, say, or Australia, to see what the internet (and, more to the point, Netflix) looks like in those far flung places.
Why Should You Install a VPN on Your Android Phone?
In short, the reasons you should install a VPN on your Android phone are the same as the reasons you should install one on your desktop PC—only more so.
Let’s start with security.
While it’s vitally important to keep your PC secure, your Android phone is exposed to much more risk on a daily basis.
That’s because you carry it around with you, from public wi-fi network to public wi-fi network. Each of these networks puts your personal data within reach of cybercriminals, who can intercept your personal information and wreak havoc with your life.
A VPN completely shields you from this threat, by creating a tunnel connection to your chosen VPN server and encrypting your data while it’s still safely hidden on your phone.
Then there’s the other great benefit of using a VPN: accessing region-locked online content.
The classic example of this sort of region-locked content is Netflix (seriously, you’ll be amazed by some of the stuff other countries get to watch before you). But there are several other types.
If you’re a gamer, for instance, the region-locked content you want to access could include a game that’s censored in your country, or only available abroad in beta.
A VPN lets you brush these restrictions aside like a cobweb.
Again, this facility is arguably much more important on your Android phone than it is on your home computer.
We’ve all spent a train journey wishing we could find something more entertaining to watch or play on our Android phones. With a VPN, there’s infinitely more entertaining stuff to find when you’re out and about.
Or, to flip things around, if you’re abroad and feeling homesick for the content available in your native region, you can reconnect with it in a jiffy through a VPN.
And it shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg to pull off this modern day miracle. A reputable VPN provider like Surfshark will cost you no more than a couple of bucks a month depending on the plan you take out.
That’s not a bad price to turn your Android phone into a virus-free, globetrotting fortress of security and entertainment.
