In an incredibly rare move, Google is killing off one of its online services – this time, VPN for Google One.
The Chocolate Factory announced it would take the virtual private network offering offline in an email to Google One subscribers and Pixel smartphone owners.
The Pixel-exclusive VPN is free and Google previously promised it would remain available for at least five years.
Google One is the web giant’s subscription service that primarily offers more cloud storage for things like files, Gmail, and photos.
The apparent reason for Google killing its VPN service was because demand was fatally low.
To keep our subscription service fresh, we’re discontinuing the VPN feature, as we found people simply weren’t using it,” Google said in a statement to The Register.
“It should come as no surprise that we want to make VPN technology available to as many users as possible,” says Google’s whitepaper on its moribund VPN service.
However, it’s unclear if Google hasn’t at least tried to remove some mentions of VPN by Google One, which is only talked about sparingly overall and is overshadowed by features such as cloud storage and photo editing.
Google is discontinuing another of its online services, VPN for Google One, in an extremely unusual move.
In an email to owners of Pixel smartphones and Google One subscribers, The Chocolate Factory announced that it would be taking down the virtual private network offering. The note stated that the VPN would be removed for subscribers “later this year” and included a number of changes to Google One that would take effect by May 15. In October 2020, the service made its debut.
The VPN will remain accessible to owners of Pixel 7 and later phones even after it is closed to the general public. Free of charge, Google previously assured users that the Pixel-only VPN would be around for at least five years. We believe everyone is aware of what’s most likely to occur by the end of 2025.
That may very well be the case, given that Google One’s VPN was previously only available as part of its $10 monthly Premium plan. A year ago, the company dropped its price to $2 for the Basic plan in an effort to attract more users.
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As of this writing, Google One’s website gives no indication that its VPN service will be discontinued. All Google One plans are said to support this feature, which is still mentioned in the benefits section.
According to Google’s moribund VPN service whitepaper, “It should come as no surprise that we want to make VPN technology available to as many users as possible.”.
Though Google One is mentioned very infrequently and is largely overshadowed by features like cloud storage and photo editing, it’s unclear if Google hasn’t at least attempted to remove some references to VPN.
