- Windscribe is working on solutions to VPN connectivity in Iran and Russia
- Expanding support for the AmneziaWG protocol is its “highest priority“
- Iran and Russia are moving to a whitelisting system that further targets VPN
Windscribe has announced new censorship-resistant features to support people in Russia and Iran struggling to use its service.
The VPN provider confirmed to TechRadar that it’s rolling out support for the AmneziaWG protocol directly into Windscribe apps. That’s a technology designed to bypass sophisticated Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) techniques by mimicking ordinary web traffic.
In a message shared on its Telegram, Reddit, and X accounts between Wednesday and Thursday, Windscribe reassured its community: “We are aware of the ongoing VPN connection issues in Iran and Russia and are working on solutions.”
The provider’s “highest priority” is expanding support for AmneziaWG to Windscribe’s native applications. This VPN protocol, the company explains, has shown to be quite successful in bypassing government blocks.
What’s next for Windscribe users in Iran and Russia
Internet censorship in Iran has just entered a new phase as the government begun rolling out a whitelisting regime, which is expected to target VPN connections even more aggressively.
Russia is also reportedly turning towards a similar framework. That’s exactly why the team at Windscribe is also working on a new system, which the company argued “will help” with these types of blocks.
Windscribe introduced the censorship-resistant protocol developed by AmneziaVPN in November, but only as a WireGuard configuration file for Pro or Build-A-Plan users.
Yet, once it is in the app, Windscribes ensures that “everyone will have access,” including users of its free VPN service.
Talking to TechRadar, Windscribe’s CEO, Yegor Sak, confirmed this “will be released as soon as we get positive feedback from the beta users who are testing it for us right now.”
For our users in Iran and Russia, we’re aware of the VPN blocks in your regions and are working on a solution with the highest priority. In the next few days we’ll start beta testing app releases with a new connection method that has shown promising results. Hang in there.January 29, 2026
Despite the upcoming boost in censorship-unblocking, AmneziaWG “won’t bypass whitelisting techniques,” Sak told TechRadar, adding that the team is currently working on a separate solution to help fight back against whitelisting.
“The second system, which is entirely server-side, is being developed right now, and will help with this.”
In its message, Windscribe has indeed announced that it will soon release a beta Android APK for people in Iran and Russia to test and see how it performs. The team is also working on a Windows build, which Windscribe hopes to release as soon as possible. Mac and iOS builds will be next on the pipeline.
Device priorities reflect the requests coming directly from Windscribe’s community, which sees the majority of Iran and Russia users being on Android (69%) and Windows (52%).
Windscribe’s work to boost its censorship-resistant capabilities couldn’t come at a more critical time.
After enforcing a near-total communication blackout on January 8, Iranian authorities have now begun a new phase in internet censorship – a whitelisting filter system to grant most citizens access only to a small list of approved websites.
Under such a framework, experts talking at TechRadar expect VPN usage to become even harder, if not impossible. Whitelisting will simply make VPN blocking much easier.
After years of improving its censorship capabilities, Russia’s battle against VPNs is now entering a new phase, too. Experts within the country have already confirmed to TechRadar that most Western VPNs are currently non-functional in Russia, with blocking techniques getting increasingly more sophisticated.
What’s certain now is that, as more authoritarian nations move from blacklisting to whitelisting filtering, VPN providers need to adapt against this new threat once again. Whether or not Windscribe’s new solution will be successful could significantly mark the industry’s new direction.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8bKsBdxxPTMJHQN47iqW9b-2000-80.jpg
Source link
chiara.castro@futurenet.com (Chiara Castro)
