Does a VPN affect phone calls? Regular, Wi-Fi and app calls

For regular phone calls, no. A normal call goes over your carrier's cell network, and a VPN only handles internet traffic, so it neither changes nor protects the call. Wi-Fi Calling usually skips the VPN too. Calls you make inside apps, like FaceTime, do go through the VPN, which can add a little delay.

What happens depends on which kind of call you are making. Here is each one, what the VPN does to it, and what to do if calls start failing.

Does a VPN affect phone calls?

A VPN app creates an encrypted tunnel for your phone's internet traffic. Phone calls come in three kinds, and only one of them is ordinary internet traffic:

Regular calls: the VPN never sees them

When you dial a number with a cell signal, the call goes from your phone to the tower and through your carrier. It is not internet traffic in the way a website or app is, so a VPN app has nothing to wrap.

Apple's developer documentation is explicit about this. iOS lets VPN apps turn on a setting called includeAllNetworks, which sends almost everything through the tunnel. Even then, Apple says the system "always excludes" certain traffic, including "cellular services traffic that uses the cellular network only, such as VoLTE."

That means a VPN does not:

• hide who you call from your carrier, which connects the call
• encrypt the call beyond what the carrier network already does
• change call quality, since the audio never enters the tunnel

It also means a VPN will not break your regular calls. If calls drop while a VPN is on, the cause is almost certainly signal or the carrier, not the VPN.

Wi-Fi Calling: its own tunnel, usually outside the VPN

Wi-Fi Calling lets your carrier route calls and texts over a Wi-Fi network when the cell signal is weak. Apple describes it as a way to "make or receive a voice phone call" over Wi-Fi in areas "with little or no cellular coverage," on its Wi-Fi Calling page. Verizon's Wi-Fi Calling FAQ says it handles "voice calls, texts and video calls."

Wi-Fi Calling already runs inside an encrypted tunnel, run by your carrier. AT&T's Wi-Fi Calling network page says the feature requires IPsec, "a method of encrypting traffic sent through the internet," with IKEv2 on UDP ports 500 and 4500 open so the phone can reach AT&T's gateway at epdg.epc.att.net.

On an iPhone, a VPN normally leaves that traffic alone. Apple's excludeCellularServices setting is on by default and keeps "Wi-Fi Calling, MMS, SMS, and Visual Voicemail" outside even an all-traffic VPN tunnel. A VPN app would have to change that default for Wi-Fi Calling to go through it.

So for Wi-Fi Calling, a VPN mostly changes nothing:

• The Wi-Fi owner can't hear the call either way. They see an encrypted connection to the carrier. Our post on what a Wi-Fi owner can see covers the rest of that picture.
• The carrier still handles the call. Its tunnel ends at the carrier's network, where the call is connected like any other.

Google's Android help pages do not say how Android routes Wi-Fi Calling when a VPN is on, so check your own phone with the steps below if calls misbehave.

App calls: the VPN does carry these

Calls made inside an app travel as internet data, so a VPN routes them like anything else. That has a cost and a benefit.

The cost is distance. Your voice goes from your phone to the VPN server, then on to the app's servers. A VPN server far away from you adds delay, which you notice more on a live call than on a web page. If calls sound laggy only with the VPN on, pick a server closer to you. Our guide on whether a VPN slows down your internet explains where that delay comes from.

The benefit is the metadata around the call. Many calling apps already encrypt the audio itself. Apple's FaceTime security documentation says FaceTime audio and video "are protected by end-to-end encryption, so no one but the sender and receiver can access them," using SRTP with AES-256. What the app's encryption does not hide is that your phone is talking to that app's servers, from your IP address. On a VPN, your Wi-Fi network and your carrier see a connection to the VPN server instead, and the app sees the VPN's IP address.

Why incoming app calls can behave differently

Incoming calls in apps usually arrive as push notifications. On iPhone, Apple's excludeAPNs setting is on by default and keeps Apple Push Notification service traffic outside an all-traffic VPN tunnel. The call itself then connects over the internet like any other app traffic.

Do emergency calls work with a VPN on?

Yes. Emergency calls go over the cell network whenever they can, which the VPN doesn't touch. Apple says that "when cellular service is available, your iPhone uses it for emergency calls," and that Wi-Fi Calling might be used only if there is no cellular service. Verizon says that with Wi-Fi Calling set up, "911 calls always try cellular service first, even when your device is in Airplane Mode or cellular service is off."

What to do if calls stop working with a VPN on

Work through these in order and test a call after each one.

1. Turn the VPN off and make a test call. If the problem stays, the VPN isn't the cause.
2. Check that Wi-Fi Calling is still on. On iPhone, open Settings, then Cellular, then Wi-Fi Calling. On Android, Google says to open Settings, then Network & internet, then SIMs, then your carrier SIM, then Wi-Fi calling. Google notes that if your phone "detects Wi-Fi calling issues, it turns off Wi-Fi calling until the problem is fixed."
3. Try another Wi-Fi network. Apple's troubleshooting steps say "Not all Wi-Fi networks work with Wi-Fi Calling." Some routers block the IPsec traffic Wi-Fi Calling needs, which is why AT&T asks for IPsec pass-through.
4. Restart the phone, then turn Wi-Fi Calling off and on. These are Apple's next steps, waiting two minutes between each.
5. Reconnect the VPN and test again. If Wi-Fi Calling only fails with the VPN on, contact the VPN provider and ask whether its app sends Wi-Fi Calling through the tunnel.

For app calls with poor audio, switch to a nearer VPN server before anything else.

Frequently asked questions

Does a VPN hide my phone number when I call someone?

No. A regular call is connected by your carrier, and the VPN is not involved, so caller ID works exactly as it does without one. For app calls, the VPN hides your IP address from the app's servers, but the app still knows your account.

Does a VPN affect incoming calls?

Not regular incoming calls, which come over the cell network. Wi-Fi calls are kept outside the tunnel by default on iPhone. App calls ring through push notifications, which iOS also keeps outside an all-traffic VPN by default, then connect through the VPN once you answer.

Can I use Wi-Fi Calling and a VPN at the same time?

Usually, yes. On iPhone, iOS keeps Wi-Fi Calling out of the VPN tunnel by default, so the two run side by side. If Wi-Fi Calling stops only with the VPN on, test another Wi-Fi network and follow the troubleshooting steps above.

Does a VPN make phone calls more secure?

Not regular or Wi-Fi calls, which do not go through it. For app calls, it adds a layer on the way to the app's servers and hides your IP address, but the call's own encryption is what keeps the conversation private. Google, for example, says end to end encrypted calls between Android phones on Google Fi require Wi-Fi calling to be turned on, and that has nothing to do with a VPN.

Does a VPN use my minutes?

No. Regular calls use your plan's minutes whether the VPN is on or off. App calls use data, and the VPN adds a little overhead to that data.

Where Secria fits

Your calls are mostly your carrier's business. Everything else your phone sends online is where a VPN helps, and that is what Secria VPN is for: post-quantum on every connection, on RAM-only servers. No activity logs: we do not record browsing, DNS queries or traffic contents. It is $7.99 a month, or part of Secria Pro at $9.99 a month with Secria Mail and the VPN on 5 devices. Plans are on the pricing page.

Wondering the same about texts? Our post on whether text messages are private covers SMS, iMessage and RCS.