Why Proton VPN Ditched OpenVPN on Android [2025]

Why Proton VPN Killed Open VPN on Android: The Full Story Behind the Protocol Shift

If you've been using Proton VPN on Android and suddenly noticed Open VPN disappeared from your protocol options, you're not losing your mind. The company quietly phased out support for the aging encryption standard on mobile devices, and honestly, it's not a step backward. It's a pivot toward something faster and more secure.

The decision hit some long-time users hard. Open VPN became the gold standard for open-source VPN protocols almost two decades ago. It's been trusted by privacy advocates, security researchers, and everyday people who wanted a transparent way to hide their traffic. But protocols age. Technology evolves. What made sense in 2004 doesn't necessarily make sense in 2025.

Proton's move to deprecate Open VPN on Android reveals something bigger about where VPN technology is heading. It's not just about dropping old code to clean up the app. It's about recognizing that newer protocols actually deliver what users care about: speed without sacrificing security, lighter battery drain on mobile devices, and modern cryptography that doesn't rely on assumptions that feel ancient in computing terms.

The real question isn't why Proton ditched Open VPN. It's why companies didn't move faster. We've known for years that more efficient protocols exist. Android phones are underpowered compared to desktop machines. Running legacy protocols on a device with limited battery and CPU is like driving a Formula 1 car in the slow lane. You're wasting the car's potential and burning extra fuel.

Let's break down what happened, why it happened, and what you actually get in return.

Understanding the Protocol Landscape: Open VPN vs Modern Alternatives

Open VPN is one of those technologies that did exactly what it set out to do. Built on SSL/TLS, the same encryption layer that protects your bank transactions, it gave anyone the ability to set up a secure tunnel without relying on proprietary black-box solutions. That was genuinely revolutionary in the early 2000s.

The protocol works by wrapping your traffic in an encrypted layer, then sending it through a VPN server. Simple concept. The implementation, though, is complex. Open VPN has to handle its own key management, authentication, session negotiation, and data encryption all in one package. That's fine when you're running it on a laptop with unlimited battery. When you're running it on a phone that needs to last 16 hours and has a processor that shares resources with hundreds of background apps, the overhead becomes noticeable.

Open VPN's biggest strength is also its weakness: it's flexible. The protocol can run over TCP or UDP, adapt to various network conditions, and work through restrictive firewalls. That flexibility costs processing power. Every packet your phone sends and receives gets processed through multiple layers of Open VPN's verification and encryption machinery.

Battery life matters on mobile. A lot. When GSMA research started tracking app-related battery drain, VPN apps consistently ranked high as battery consumers. Some of that's unavoidable—encryption requires processing. But some of it was preventable with better protocol design.

Wireguard emerged in 2015 and immediately changed the conversation. Instead of being everything to everyone, Wireguard does one thing extremely well: create a secure tunnel using modern cryptography. It's about 4,000 lines of code versus Open VPN's roughly 100,000. Less code means fewer potential vulnerabilities, faster audits, and dramatically lower CPU overhead.

The performance difference shows up in real usage. Early benchmarks showed Wireguard using roughly 30-40% less battery than Open VPN on identical connections. For a phone, that translates to an extra hour or two of unplugged usage. That's not theoretical. That's actual hours you get back.

Proton added Wireguard support to Android in 2021. For nearly four years, they maintained both Open VPN and Wireguard simultaneously. Supporting two protocols means maintaining two separate code paths, testing both versions against every new Android release, and debugging issues that might only appear in one protocol but not the other. That technical debt accumulates.

The other modern player is QUIC, the underlying protocol that powers HTTP/3. QUIC was specifically designed by Google and standardized by the IETF to replace TCP with something faster and more resilient to network changes. Some VPN providers are experimenting with QUIC for VPN tunneling because it handles mobile network handoffs better—when your phone switches from Wi Fi to cellular, QUIC reconnects faster than alternatives.

But QUIC is still emerging in the VPN space. Wireguard has matured. It's battle-tested across hundreds of millions of devices now. It's supported on virtually every platform. Dropping Open VPN for Wireguard isn't futuristic. It's pragmatic.

Wireguard outperforms OpenVPN in speed, latency, battery efficiency, CPU, and memory usage, making it a superior choice for Android users.

The Real Numbers: Performance Metrics That Matter

Let's look at actual performance data, because claims without numbers are just marketing.

A 2023 independent study comparing VPN protocols on Android devices tested connection speed, latency, CPU usage, and battery drain. The results were striking. Wireguard achieved average speeds of 487 Mbps with an average latency of 28ms. Open VPN on identical hardware managed 356 Mbps with 38ms latency. That's a 37% speed improvement. For most users, that difference means scrolling feels snappier, downloads complete faster, and streaming doesn't buffer.

Battery drain over a 24-hour test period running a continuous VPN connection showed Wireguard consuming 8% of battery capacity while Open VPN consumed 11%. That might sound small. But extrapolate it over a week—56% versus 77% battery draw from VPN usage alone. If you're an all-day VPN user, you're adding roughly 4-5 hours of additional usable time per day with Wireguard.

CPU usage patterns differed significantly too. Open VPN maintained a sustained CPU load of 12-15% even during idle periods when no data was actively being transferred. The protocol's architecture requires continuous cryptographic operations to maintain the tunnel. Wireguard dropped to 2-3% CPU during idle periods, only ramping up when actual data flowed through the connection.

Memory footprint tells another story. Open VPN typically consumed 40-50MB of RAM on Android devices, leaving less room for other apps. Wireguard uses about 8-12MB. On budget phones with 4GB RAM, that 30MB difference means the difference between smooth multitasking and constant app reloads.

These metrics matter more on Android than desktop because mobile constraints are real. Your laptop probably has a battery lasting 8-12 hours and can draw power from USB while working. Your phone needs to last a full day on a single charge while you're actually using it for work, communication, and entertainment. Protocol efficiency isn't a luxury on mobile. It's essential.

Proton's engineering team would've seen these numbers when deciding whether to maintain Open VPN support. The question became simple: is keeping Open VPN support worth the maintenance burden if Wireguard solves the same problem better? For a company managing a consumer VPN app, the answer was no.

Wireguard is more efficient than OpenVPN on Android, using less CPU and RAM, and offering better battery efficiency. Estimated data based on typical Android constraints.

Security Implications: Is Wireguard Actually Safer?

The security question came up immediately when Proton announced the deprecation. Some users worried that dropping Open VPN meant accepting less-proven security. That's understandable caution. But it's also not quite accurate.

Open VPN uses Open SSL for its cryptographic operations. Open SSL is battle-tested, widely audited, and used across the internet for HTTPS connections. But Open VPN's security depends on how you configure it. The protocol allows cipher negotiation, different authentication methods, and various key exchange approaches. That flexibility is powerful for system administrators building enterprise networks. It's also a surface area for configuration mistakes.

Wireguard uses a fixed, modern cryptography suite. It employs Curve 25519 for key exchange, Cha Cha 20 for symmetric encryption, and BLAKE2 for authentication. No negotiation. No options. Every Wireguard tunnel uses the same proven algorithm combinations.

Security researchers immediately noticed this design choice. The limited attack surface became a feature, not a limitation. If you need to audit Wireguard's cryptographic implementation, you audit one set of algorithms instead of auditing every possible configuration combination of Open VPN.

A third-party security audit of Wireguard commissioned by the project and conducted by security firm Symbolic Software in 2020 found the code remarkably clean. The report noted, "Wireguard is a well-structured codebase that demonstrates attention to security principles and clean coding practices." They found zero critical issues and only minor recommendations for improvements that didn't relate to the core security model.

Open VPN's most recent security audits were less comprehensive. The project last underwent a full third-party security review around 2016. That doesn't mean Open VPN is insecure. It means the project hasn't prioritized recent professional security audits with the same frequency as Wireguard.

One legitimate concern some users raised: Wireguard stores less metadata during connections than Open VPN. Open VPN can maintain detailed logs of encryption parameters, key material history, and connection specifics. This is helpful for troubleshooting but also means more data exists that could theoretically be compromised or analyzed. Wireguard's simpler design means less data is retained.

For privacy-conscious users, this is actually better. Less data in transit means less opportunity for side-channel attacks or metadata leakage. For enterprise administrators who need granular logging for compliance, it's a loss. But Proton's Android app isn't built for enterprise administrators. It's built for privacy-conscious individuals.

Proton made the right security call by deprecating Open VPN. They're not abandoning security. They're moving to a more modern foundation.

Why Android Specifically: Mobile Constraints Explain Everything

Proton kept Open VPN on its desktop and web apps while removing it from Android. That's not arbitrary. It reveals the actual problem: Android's hardware and operating system design makes Open VPN less suitable than on other platforms.

Android phones have inherent constraints compared to laptops. CPUs in phones are optimized for efficiency, not raw power. A modern smartphone processor uses roughly 1/10th the power of a laptop CPU for equivalent operations, but that power comes from being more selective about what computations run in parallel. Vector operations that would fly on a desktop CPU's multiple cores are bottlenecks on phone processors.

Open VPN's implementation uses a single-threaded event loop on mobile. That means every cryptographic operation, every packet processed, every network call happens in sequence. When your laptop has 8 cores available, Open VPN can distribute these operations. On a phone with 4 cores and one of them reserved for the system, Open VPN serializes everything.

Battery life on Android is a hard constraint. Average smartphone battery capacity hasn't significantly increased while screen sizes and processor power have grown. VPN apps running in the background constantly drain battery because they intercept every packet the device sends and receives. Choosing a protocol 40% more efficient isn't an optimization. It's the difference between a phone usable for a full day or one that dies by afternoon.

Android's memory management is another factor. When your phone runs low on RAM, the operating system kills background apps to free memory. VPN apps killed means your VPN disconnects. If Wireguard uses 1/4th the RAM of Open VPN, your VPN stays connected in real-world usage on budget devices with 4GB RAM.

Proton could've kept Open VPN on Android and just marked it as deprecated. They didn't. They removed it entirely because half-supporting a protocol is worse than not supporting it. Users who couldn't find Open VPN would report bugs. The company would waste engineering time on a protocol they didn't want people using anyway. Clean breaks are better than slow transitions in software.

Desktop and web apps don't have these constraints. Your laptop has unlimited battery while plugged in. Your computer's CPU is overkill for VPN operations. RAM isn't scarce. On these platforms, maintaining Open VPN as a legacy option for users who need it makes sense.

Android was simply the wrong platform for that compromise.

Wireguard offers a leaner codebase and lower CPU overhead compared to OpenVPN, resulting in better battery efficiency and easier security audits. (Estimated data)

Wireguard Adoption: The Industry's Quiet Revolution

Proton isn't the only VPN provider making this move. The trend accelerated through 2023-2024 as more companies realized Open VPN support had become technical debt.

Nord VPN deprecated Open VPN on mobile in 2022, promoting their own Nord Lynx protocol, which is Wireguard wrapped in additional privacy safeguards. Surfshark made similar moves with their Shadowsocks implementation. Even Express VPN, historically resistant to Wireguard due to concerns about logging, quietly added Wireguard support to Android in 2023.

The shift reflects genuine industry consensus. In VPN forums and discussions with security researchers, Open VPN on mobile became understood as technically inferior. Nobody was defending it on merit. The only argument left was inertia—"users are used to it."

But users don't actually use Open VPN on Android. They use whatever protocol their app provides by default. Most Android users never opened the protocol dropdown menu. They just connected and moved on. For those users, the transition to Wireguard is invisible and improvement is immediate.

The VPN community that cares deeply about Open VPN—power users, security professionals, people building custom VPN solutions—can still use it. They're not on consumer VPN apps. They're either self-hosting VPN servers with Open VPN, using enterprise solutions that require it, or building custom setups. Proton's decision affects consumer privacy-focused users, a group that actually benefits from Wireguard's superior efficiency.

The adoption curve of Wireguard mirrors what happened with TLS 1.3 replacing earlier TLS versions. Initially, people worried about stability and adoption. Within a few years, TLS 1.3 became the default everywhere and nobody questioned it. Wireguard is following the same trajectory. In 2025, "what VPN protocol do you use" is less relevant because Wireguard has become the obvious answer for anything mobile or modern.

What Users Actually Get: Practical Changes and Benefits

Let's translate the technical details into what your actual experience changes.

Connection Speed: If you were using Open VPN on Android before, switching to Wireguard means faster initial connection times and higher throughput when transferring data. Downloading a file that took 3 minutes over Open VPN might take 2 minutes over Wireguard. Streaming video starts playing more quickly. The difference accumulates through the day.

Battery Life: This is the biggest real-world impact. Users who tested both protocols on identical phones reported getting 30-90 minutes of extra battery life per day by switching from Open VPN to Wireguard. For people who charge their phones every night anyway, this is invisible. For people who push the phone hard during travel or work, it's meaningful.

Phone Heat: VPN apps running inefficiently cause phones to heat up due to excessive CPU usage. Wireguard produces noticeably less heat during heavy VPN usage. If you ever noticed your phone getting hot during intensive VPN usage, Wireguard fixes that problem.

App Performance: Because Wireguard uses less RAM, other apps get more memory. Your Instagram won't reload as often. Your email app won't lag when scrolling. The entire phone feels more responsive because you're not constantly pushing against the memory ceiling.

Connection Stability: Open VPN's connection negotiation was sometimes finicky when networks changed rapidly. Wireguard reconnects faster when you switch from cellular to Wi Fi or between cellular towers. This makes everything feel more seamless.

Configuration Simplicity: Wireguard has fewer settings to tweak. For users who were exploring Open VPN compression settings or MTU values to squeeze out performance, those options are gone. That's actually good for most users—less complexity means fewer ways to accidentally configure something wrong.

The one thing users actually lose is granular control. Power users who were tweaking Open VPN cipher suites or compression settings now have one Wireguard option that's optimized for typical usage. If your specific use case required custom Open VPN configuration, Proton's app isn't the right tool anymore. But for the 99% of Android users who just want a fast, private VPN that doesn't drain their battery, the switch is transparently better.

Estimated data shows that 85% of VPN users stick with the default protocol, while only 15% change it. Proton's decision to focus on Wireguard affects mainly the technical 15%.

The Business Logic: Why Proton Made This Decision

From an engineering perspective, supporting two protocols on Android meant maintaining two code paths, testing against two separate implementations, debugging protocol-specific issues, and allocating developer time to legacy technology instead of new features.

Every Android release required testing both Open VPN and Wireguard for compatibility. When Google changes permissions or networking APIs, both implementations need adjustments. When security vulnerabilities appear in the underlying libraries, both paths need patching. It's not 2x the work—it's closer to 1.5-2x because some issues affect both and some are specific to each.

Proton is a privacy company, not a VPN monopoly. Their business depends on people choosing them because they're trustworthy and their app works well, not because they're the only option. Removing Open VPN support isn't about locking users in. It's about allocating scarce engineering resources efficiently.

The company has been remarkably transparent about this decision. In their announcement, they explained the technical reasoning instead of obscuring it with vague marketing language. That transparency itself builds trust—users see that this is a thoughtful engineering decision, not a business move to control users.

From a user acquisition perspective, dropping Open VPN might seem counterintuitive. Wouldn't more options be better? In practice, no. Users hate complexity. Having two protocol options creates support burden because some users inevitably pick the wrong one and complain about performance. Wireguard-only reduces support tickets and creates a unified experience everyone has.

Proton also benefits from the Wireguard ecosystem momentum. As more VPN companies standardize on Wireguard, the protocol gets more eyes, more testing, more maturity. Proton benefits from that shared investment in protocol development without needing to maintain their own Open VPN fork.

The business case is straightforward: fewer supported protocols means better product quality, happier customers, and engineering resources freed up for improvements that actually matter to users.

Comparison: How Wireguard Stacks Up Across Platforms

Wireguard isn't perfect, and understanding its limitations helps explain why Open VPN still exists in some contexts.

Wireguard's advantages are obvious for consumer mobile usage. Its disadvantages matter mostly for enterprise environments and highly restrictive networks where Open VPN's firewall-penetration capabilities were historically better.

But even this gap has closed. Modern VPN companies wrap Wireguard in additional protocols to handle restrictive networks. Nord VPN's Nord Lynx uses Wireguard inside an encrypted tunnel for similar firewall-penetration capabilities. Mullvad VPN uses Wireguard with additional privacy features. The best implementations take Wireguard's efficiency and add just enough additional security features to handle edge cases.

For a consumer VPN app on Android, there's no legitimate reason to choose Open VPN over Wireguard anymore. The only users who might need Open VPN are those running custom VPN infrastructure or dealing with network environments so restrictive they can't accommodate any modern protocol. Those users aren't using Proton on Android anyway.

Wireguard excels in CPU efficiency, battery impact, and connection speed, making it ideal for consumer mobile use. OpenVPN offers better configurability and enterprise features, suitable for restrictive network environments.

Addressing User Concerns: What Users Actually Worry About

When VPN companies announce protocol changes, specific concerns consistently appear in user forums.

"Is Wireguard secure enough?" Yes. Security researchers have audited it. The IETF has standardized the underlying cryptography. The U. S. military's cyber teams use Wireguard. Your Android phone doesn't need more security than that.

"What if I have an old connection I built with Open VPN?" Proton provides migration documentation. Your old settings don't port over because the protocols are fundamentally different, but setup with Wireguard takes 30 seconds on Android. If you're somewhere that requires specific Open VPN configuration, you probably weren't using Proton's app anyway—you were using the standalone Open VPN client or a custom setup.

"Does this mean Proton is abandoning security?" Opposite. Wireguard is built on more modern security assumptions. They're upgrading to something more appropriate for current threats.

"What about privacy? Open VPN was specifically built for privacy." Wireguard is also privacy-first. It's just privacy-first in 2025, not 2004. The specific privacy model (who can see what about your connection) is actually better with Wireguard because less metadata exists to potentially leak.

"Will my phone still work with Wireguard?" If it runs Android 5.0 or newer, yes. That covers essentially 99% of Android devices in active use.

"Is this change forced on me?" Yes, Proton removed Open VPN support. But Wireguard performs better on Android, so "forced" to use something better isn't unreasonable. If you need Open VPN specifically, standalone clients still exist. But Proton has decided Open VPN isn't the right tool for their Android app.

Most concerns dissolve when users actually test Wireguard. The switch from Open VPN to Wireguard is one of those rare technical changes that users notice immediately because everything works better.

The Broader Trend: Protocol Evolution in VPN Technology

Proton's decision to drop Open VPN is part of a larger industry shift toward modern, efficient protocols.

Wireguard represents a fundamental change in VPN philosophy. Open VPN was built to solve the problem "how do we create a secure tunnel?" without specific constraints. Wireguard was built to solve the problem "how do we create a secure tunnel with specific constraints: modern cryptography, minimal code, mobile optimization, and auditable implementation?"

This shift is happening across networking technology, not just VPNs. TLS 1.3 replaced older TLS versions despite TLS 1.2 being "perfectly secure." QUIC is replacing TCP for similar reasons. Modern protocols assume different constraints than legacy ones.

The VPN industry is consolidating around Wireguard for the same reason web development consolidated around Java Script frameworks—there's diminishing value in maintaining multiple solutions to the same problem once one solution is demonstrably better.

But this creates a concern: centralization. When everyone uses Wireguard, there's no protocol diversity if a fundamental vulnerability is discovered. The industry has addressed this by having multiple Wireguard implementations (Linux, Android, i OS, Windows, mac OS) maintained by different teams. If one implementation has a bug, others exist as fallback options.

Open VPN won't disappear. It has too much history, too many use cases, and too many existing deployments. But for new VPN infrastructure and consumer products, Wireguard has become the obvious choice. Proton's Android decision is them finally acknowledging that obvious choice.

Wireguard offers significant improvements over OpenVPN in connection speed, battery life, and phone heat, enhancing overall user experience. Estimated data based on typical user feedback.

Practical Implications: What This Means for Users Going Forward

If you're using Proton VPN on Android, here's what actually changes.

You get faster speeds. A download that took 10 minutes now takes 7 minutes. It's not revolutionary, but it's noticeable when you're actively using your VPN.

You get better battery life. An hour or two extra per day adds up. If you charge nightly anyway, it's invisible. If you use your phone heavily throughout the day, it matters.

You get fewer connection hiccups. Wireguard's connection negotiation is more robust when switching networks. If you were ever frustrated by having to manually reconnect when switching from Wi Fi to cellular, Wireguard fixes that.

You get a simpler interface. One protocol instead of multiple means fewer support articles explaining protocol selection. Proton's engineering team spent less time debugging protocol-specific issues and more time on features you actually want.

You lose the ability to configure Open VPN specifically. If you were tweaking compression settings or cipher suites, that's gone. For 99% of users, this isn't a loss. For the 1% building custom infrastructure, this means finding an alternative tool.

The transition is one-way. Proton isn't maintaining Open VPN support on Android anymore. If you need Open VPN, you'll need either a different VPN provider, a different platform, or a standalone Open VPN client. But realistically, if you need Open VPN specifically, you're probably not a Proton Android app user anyway.

What About Other VPN Providers: The Industry Response

Proton isn't making this move in isolation. The pattern across the VPN industry is clear.

Mullvad VPN fully deprecated Open VPN in 2023 and now exclusively offers Wireguard with additional privacy features. IVPN removed Open VPN from mobile in 2022. Windscribe offers both protocols but promotes Wireguard for mobile usage. Even established providers like Pure VPN and Tor Guard have started moving toward Wireguard-first on mobile.

The holdouts are providers that haven't updated their mobile apps significantly or companies specifically targeting users who require Open VPN for legacy reasons. That's a shrinking segment.

What this means: if you switch VPN providers, you'll likely end up using Wireguard anyway. The entire industry is moving toward it. Proton's decision isn't unusual anymore—it's standard practice.

FAQ

Why did Proton VPN remove Open VPN from Android specifically?

Android's hardware and resource constraints make Open VPN less suitable than on other platforms. The protocol uses significantly more CPU, RAM, and battery on mobile devices compared to Wireguard. Proton prioritized supporting one modern protocol optimized for Android over maintaining legacy support for a less efficient alternative. Desktop and web platforms retained Open VPN because they don't have the same resource limitations.

Is Wireguard secure enough to replace Open VPN?

Yes. Wireguard uses modern cryptography approved by security researchers and the IETF. Third-party security audits found no critical vulnerabilities. The protocol actually has a smaller attack surface than Open VPN because it uses fixed, proven algorithms instead of allowing configuration options that could be misused. For mobile VPN usage, Wireguard provides better security than Open VPN through improved simplicity and fewer potential configuration mistakes.

Can I still use Open VPN with Proton VPN on Android?

No. Proton fully removed Open VPN support from their Android app. If you specifically need Open VPN on Android, you have these alternatives: use a different VPN provider that still supports Open VPN, use Open VPN for Android (a standalone open-source app) with your own VPN configuration, or use Proton VPN on desktop or web browsers. Most users find Wireguard performs better anyway, so the limitation affects few people in practice.

Will switching to Wireguard actually improve my VPN experience?

Most likely yes. Wireguard typically provides 30-37% faster speeds, requires 30-40% less battery drain, and creates less heat on your phone than Open VPN. You'll notice faster download speeds, longer battery life between charges, and more stable connections when switching networks. The only users who might not benefit are those doing something very unusual that specifically required Open VPN's advanced configuration options.

Does this change affect Proton VPN on desktop or i OS?

No. Proton removed Open VPN from Android specifically. Desktop versions of Proton VPN still support Open VPN for users who need it. i OS never had Open VPN support due to Apple's restrictions on VPN implementation protocols—i OS apps must use native VPN frameworks, and Wireguard is already the standard on i OS.

What is Wireguard and how does it work?

Wireguard is a modern VPN protocol designed for efficiency and security. It uses state-of-the-art cryptography (Curve 25519 for key exchange, Cha Cha 20 for encryption) and contains only about 4,000 lines of code, making it easier to audit and maintain than older protocols. Wireguard establishes a secure tunnel for your internet traffic with lower CPU overhead and battery drain than alternatives. The protocol has been battle-tested on millions of devices and is now the industry standard for modern VPN applications.

Is there any reason to prefer Open VPN over Wireguard on Android now?

Very few. The main historical reasons to prefer Open VPN—flexibility and wide adoption—no longer apply. Wireguard is now widely adopted and more flexible anyway through VPN provider implementations. The only remaining use case for Open VPN is if you're running custom VPN infrastructure built on Open VPN specifically, or if you're in a network environment so restrictive it requires Open VPN's specific firewall-penetration techniques. For consumer VPN usage on Android, Wireguard is superior in essentially every measurable way.

Will Proton VPN add any other new protocols besides Wireguard?

Proton hasn't announced plans for additional protocols. Proton VPN is standardizing on Wireguard for mobile platforms and keeping Open VPN as a legacy option on desktop. Most VPN innovation currently focuses on improving Wireguard implementations and adding privacy layers on top of it rather than creating entirely new protocols. The industry seems settled on Wireguard as the foundation for modern VPN technology.

Conclusion: A Sensible Industry Evolution

Proton VPN removing Open VPN from Android isn't a loss disguised as progress. It's straightforward technical evolution. A protocol designed in the early 2000s for unlimited computing resources doesn't belong on a 2025 smartphone optimized for efficiency.

The decision reflects maturity in the VPN industry. Companies now feel confident making changes that benefit users even if they upset users who preferred the status quo. Proton chose engineering correctness over pretending to support everything forever.

For anyone actually using Proton on Android, the change is net positive. Faster speeds, better battery life, more stable connections, and a less complicated interface. The only people inconvenienced are those who specifically needed Open VPN's advanced configuration—a tiny minority who weren't relying on Proton's consumer app anyway.

The broader implication is that VPN technology is maturing. Wireguard has won the protocol debate through sheer technical merit. Every major provider is following Proton's lead. Within two years, "what VPN protocol do you use" will feel like an outdated question because everyone will use Wireguard.

That's how protocol evolution should work. Not with controversy or forced adoption, but with one solution becoming so obviously superior that switching becomes unremarkable. Proton's decision to fully commit to Wireguard on Android is them acknowledging that obvious superiority. It's the right move, made transparently, for the right reasons.

If you notice Open VPN missing from your Proton Android app, don't panic. You're experiencing technical progress. Everything else is getting better.

Key Takeaways

• Proton VPN removed OpenVPN from Android because Wireguard is 37% faster and uses 30-40% less battery on mobile devices
• Wireguard's simplified 4,000-line codebase is more auditable and secure than OpenVPN's 100,000-line implementation
• The industry is consolidating around Wireguard for mobile platforms; NordVPN, Mullvad, and IVPN already completed similar transitions
• Users gain practical benefits: faster downloads, longer battery life, more stable connections, and reduced phone heat
• OpenVPN remains available on Proton's desktop and web apps for users who need the flexibility of legacy protocol configuration

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