Hello, I recently posted about an issue I had with OpenVPN for Android on my newly purchased a ONN Google TV 4K Streaming Box (New, 2023) from Walmart and my VPN is now working great.
I have a new question that I’m hoping someone can answer. Is there any way to do the following with the VPN and a specific app:
- The VPN (OpenVPN) is disconnected.
- I use all of my apps as normal.
- Then, if I select a specific app, then VPN opens and this specific app uses the VPN.
- If I exit the app (possibly by hitting the home screen), the VPN disconnects so that when I use all the other apps, they are not using the VPN.
I do not want the VPN to stay connected if I am not using the specific app. Does anyone know if the above is possible?
I sort of do this with Mullvad. Mullvad has split tunneling, so while it’s technically running all the time, most of my apps bypass it and only a select few actually go through it.
Thank you everyone for the replies… just to clarify a couple of things - I am using ‘OpenVPN for Android’ on my ONN 4k device as the VPN is one that I created personally between a couple of locations, hence the reason I am using OpenVPN. This morning I opened the ‘OpenVPN for Android’ and it does not look like is supports splits tunneling / the option to route certain apps through the VPN.
Any other suggestions? Would something like the ‘Tasker’ app work for this?
If you own the other end of the the VPN then Tailscale is perfect.
I have a house in the US and another in Italy (I’m here now). With Tailscale, I use my house in the US as the default exit node (this gives me all my US streaming services). But we also like to watch Italian TV (RAI) via the RAIplay app. With Tailscale I can turn off the VPN solely for the RAIPlay app.
Alternatively, my US Android TV (Google Streamer at both locations) can default exit node to Italy but I can turn it off for all the US apps and only have RAIplay exit in Italy.
I am not sure if what you’re describing is possible, having the vpn turn on/off automatically when you open/close an app, but you can definitely achieve what you want using split tunneling. Check in the VPN’s settings for the feature. I googled it and they say OpenVPN supports it.
You leave the VPN connected at all times, but turn on split tunneling and then specify which apps you want the to use with the VPN. So only those specific apps will tunnel traffic through the VPN. Anything else will not be going through the VPN server.
Thank you for this👍 This is kind of what I’m looking for as I own both the Client / Server side of the OpenVPN setup. I will look into this right away and see what I come up with.