Google has announced that it’s axing another of its services with the wrapping up of Google One VPN.
The tech giant has started emailing subscribers to its Google One cloud storage provision to notify them of an impending change to their service. Over the coming months, you will no longer be able to use the company’s VPN provision.
Google told 9to5Google that it was “discontinuing the VPN feature as [they] found people simply weren’t using it.” Ending the service will apparently allow the team to “refocus” and “support more in-demand features with Google One.”
The company added a free Virtual Private Network (VPN) to Google One back in October 2020, allowing US-based premium subscribers to encrypt online traffic to protect privacy and hide their IP address. It’s through such a VPN that you can access region-locked web and media content.
UK subscribers gained access to this VPN perk in August 2021. It was only about a year ago (March 2023 to be precise) that Google opened out this VPN access to all of its Google One plans.
It’s a bit of a shame that Google is removing this feature, though it should be noted that Pixel users will still be able to access something similar in Pixel VPN.
Google has acquired an unfortunate reputation over the years for abruptly shuttering promising services, initiatives, and hardware projects. This includes several messaging services, the Google Plus social network, the much missed Google Reader RSS client, and too many more to mention here.
Add another to that ever-expanding list.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
