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Comment by chadlavi | Hacker News Reader

After switching to wireguard I've been really blown away at how much better the experience is on a phone than other VPN methods. It's always on on my phone as long as I'm not using my home wifi, and I just never need to think about it.

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On iOS it's still a userspace client, as I understand it, and the additional battery drain was very noticeable for me.

I noticed a HUGE battery drain with other VPN clients like PIA's app or just OpenTunnel, but either my 3 year old iPhone X has a great battery, or the battery drain from WireGuard has been unnoticeable for me.

1 year old iphone 8 here and Wireguard was noticeable (vs no VPN). I did not try other VPNs.

I use an iPhone SE for work with a WireGuard VPN, no noticeable drain (beyond that battery life is generally pretty bad compared to my Android, even when WiFi/data/bluetooth/gps are turned off).

Do you have an automated way for turning it off when you're on home wifi? Trying a similar setup, and it isn't immediately clear other than via manual activation how to not use Wireguard in that situation.

Thanks.

The built-in "on-demand activation" is quite good. Can set it to specific SSIDs (white or blacklist) or cellular. I've it on for everything except my home SSID.

Edit: I'm talking about the iOS version, not sure what platform you're using.

No such luck on Android, you need to use tasker or similar. Really a nuisance but not a deal breaker. It would be dreamy to set up the client to not use specific SSIDs.

I want to point out that the intents on the official Wireguard Android app are not exposed, so I, not being rooted, can't use Tasker to automate it.

However, there are other Android apps that implement Wireguard that do expose their intents. I use Viscerion with Tasker quite happily.

What iOS client are you using? I am using the Wireguard one (the the twisty snake/dragon) and don't see any of these options. Is this stuff that is done in the config files? Sorry, all new to me.

It's in there! Scroll down to the "On-demand activation" section of the settings for your connection

There it is! Thank you!

Yep, this is what I do. It just doesn't connect when I'm connected to my home WiFi

On Android this can be easily achieved by Tasker.

Personally I have the luxury of running the VPN server at home, so I can just always leave it on.

Why does this allow you to allows leave it on?

Presumably minimal latency from phone on home wifi to server on home wifi. I actually have no idea if this is true, or how I'd evaluate it. Does anyone understand how the internet and wireguard works well enough to know if this is true?

That's what I was wondering. I've actually done this using OpenVPN (connected to my home VPN server while on home wifi), and it worked fine. Biggest issue was battery impact, but wireguard might be better in that regard?

Well since I connect to my home network anyway I can just leave it on at home and there's no difference in performance.

I havent used it so i cant vouch for it personally, but IFTTT has been recommended to me highly.

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