Hello Proton team,

First of all, thank you for Proton VPN and the whole Proton ecosystem. I’m a paying user and I really appreciate your focus on privacy and on open, well-documented security.

I’m writing to request a feature that I believe matches a very common and “natural” use case for VPNs on mobile phones, especially on iOS.

Current situation

On iOS, we can use auto-connect and some Shortcuts automations, but there is no simple way to express the following behaviour:

Automatically connect Proton VPN on any Wi-Fi network, except for a few trusted ones (for example my home Wi-Fi).

Automatically disconnect Proton VPN when the device is no longer connected to Wi-Fi (i.e. when switching to cellular data).

With the current options, we can approximate this behaviour using iOS Shortcuts, location-based automations, and manual workarounds, but it is fragile, complex to set up, and far from user-friendly.

Requested feature

It would be extremely useful to have, directly inside the Proton VPN app (or account settings), something like:

A list of “Trusted Wi-Fi networks” (by SSID), for which:

Option: Never auto-connect VPN on these networks

Option: Automatically disconnect VPN when connecting to these networks

A global rule such as:

“Auto-connect Proton VPN on any Wi-Fi network that is not in the Trusted list.”

“When not connected to Wi-Fi (cellular only), automatically disconnect Proton VPN (optional toggle).”

This would perfectly match a very common pattern on mobile:

At home (trusted Wi-Fi) → no VPN needed.

On any other Wi-Fi (work, café, hotel, public hotspot) → VPN should automatically protect the connection.

On cellular data → user can choose whether the VPN should remain on, but many people would prefer to turn it off automatically to save battery and data.

Why this matters

This behaviour feels like a “default” expectation for many privacy-conscious users on smartphones. Right now, implementing it requires:

A good understanding of iOS Shortcuts / automation;

Several separate automations (per location, per network, etc.);

And even then, it still doesn’t handle “Wi-Fi disconnect” events cleanly.

If Proton VPN could offer this directly as a first-class feature (especially on iOS, where system-level triggers are limited), it would greatly simplify the life of many users and make Proton VPN feel even more “smart” and integrated in everyday usage.

Thank you very much for considering this request, and for all the work you already do to offer privacy-respecting tools. If you need more details or real-world usage examples, I’d be glad to provide them.

Best regards,