Want to learn how to change IP address on Android devices, but don’t know where to start?
No problem - we’ll show you five easy methods to do this. Also, we’ll take a look at when you might want to change your IP address too.
Here’s How to Change IP Address on Android
Overall, you have five ways to do it:
1. Use Mobile Data or Switch Networks
This is by far the easiest way to change your IP address. It only takes a few seconds, and you don’t need any extra tools.
If you’re currently connected to a WiFi network, you basically have two options:
- Disconnect from it, and turn on your mobile data. Your mobile provider will assign you a new IP address.
- Connect to a different WiFi network. When you do that, the network will automatically assign your device a new IP address.
2. Use a VPN
A VPN is an online service that encrypts your Internet traffic and hides your IP address. By “hide it,” we mean it stops other websites from seeing it. Here’s how:
- You first run a VPN app, and use it to connect to a VPN server.
- The app and the server negotiate and establish a secure connection (called an encrypted tunnel).
- When you visit a website, your connection requests will go to it through the VPN server.
- So, the app sends your requests to the VPN server. Then, the server forwards them to the website on your behalf, acting like a “middleman.”
- Because the website sees the request coming from the VPN server and not your Android device, it will only see the server’s IP address. So your device’s IP address is effectively “hidden.”
Still having trouble understanding how it all works? No problem - here’s an image that should help a lot:
And using a VPN on Android is very simple. Commercial providers offer user-friendly apps. You just need to download them from the Google Play store, install and run them, and connect to a VPN server with a few taps.
It’s as simple as that.
Plus, because VPNs use powerful encryption, you’ll be safe from WiFi eavesdropping, fake hotspots, and bandwidth throttling (when your ISP intentionally slows down your speeds).
If you’re not sure which VPN to use, we recommend trying ExpressVPN or NordVPN. They offer fast servers, secure connections, and no-log policies (so they don’t store your real IP address). Plus they’re leak-proof too, so no need to worry about your IP address being exposed while connected to them.
3. Use a Proxy
A proxy is an online service that works similar to a VPN. Its servers also act as middlemen between you and the web to hide your IP address.
However, unlike a VPN, a proxy won’t offer powerful encryption. Some of them don’t offer any encryption at all, in fact. So your traffic is open to cyber attacks and eavesdropping.
If you want to learn how to change your IP address on Android for privacy reasons, that’s a pretty big problem. Plus, if the proxy is configured to keep logs, it will know what your real IP address is.
4. Use Tor
Tor stands for the The Onion Router, and it’s a privacy network that’s accessed through the Tor browser. You just install and access the web through it, and you’ll visit websites through the browser.
The network is run by volunteers and is designed to route your traffic through different servers. It will bounce through at least three of them, meaning it gets encrypted and decrypted multiple times.
Since your connections will be routed through those servers, your IP address will be hidden too. Any site you visit will only see the address of the Tor exit node (the server you traffic exits through).
If you plan on using Tor, just remember there are some drawbacks:
- You’ll get pretty bad speeds since there are way more users (over two million) than there are servers (around 6,000). The multiple layers of encryption also don’t help.
- Tor previously had an issue that caused it to leak user IP addresses.
- Tor can sometimes leak your IP address when you try to open certain files that bypass proxy settings (like PDFs files).
5. Set IP Settings to Static
We saved this method for last because it’s less convenient than the previous four options. Also, it’s not as efficient because it won’t change all your IP addresses’ digits, just the last two of them.
How to change IP address on your Android phone through IP settings:might sound complicated, but don’t worry - we’ll make it simple for you.
To do that, you have to head to your network’s advanced settings. To get there, you need to head to Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi.
Now, tap the cog icon next to the network you’re connected to (it’s to the left of it).
Now tap Advanced right at the bottom, tap IP settings, and switch from DHCP to Static.
To protect our tester’s privacy, we removed his IP and DNS addresses (except DNS 2 which is Google Public DNS). But to change your IP address manually you just need to edit the last two digits or last digit of your address.
So let’s say your gateway’s IP address is 192.169.100.100 and your Android phone’s IP address is 192.169.100.110. You’d need to change “100.110” or just “110” from your IP address to different numbers between this range: 0 and 255.
So you could use something like 192.169.50.60 as your device’s IP address.
When Should You Change Your IP Address on Android?
Now that you know how to change IP address on Android phones, let’s take a look at some use cases. According to our research, you should do this when you want to:
Unblock Online Content
Can’t visit a site because it’s not available in your area?
Changing your IP address might fix that.
Here’s why - websites often use geo-restrictions to block connections from specific countries. They know what your geo-location is because your IP address reveals it. And any site can see your IP address when you connect to it because it’s in your requests.
Why do websites do that? Reasons vary a lot, but it’s usually because they need to comply with laws or respect copyright agreements and licensing rights.
So you’d need to change your IP address to the address of a specific country. For example, if you wanted to watch shows on the US Netflix library, but you’re from Canada, you’d need a US IP address.
Unfortunately, you can’t manually do that. You’ll need to use a VPN (ideal solution), a proxy, or Tor.
Bypass Firewalls
Dealing with firewalls at work or school? Your government uses them to censor online sites?
You definitely need to change your IP address then. It’s the only way you can circumvent firewalls.
Here’s the thing - firewall restrictions work based on IP addresses. You use them to identify your devices on a network, and firewalls control inbound and outbound network traffic. So if network admins use firewalls, their restrictions will be linked to your IP address.
If you get a new IP address, though, those restrictions no longer apply to you. How could they? You’ll be using a different network to access the web, after all.
At school or work, it’s usually enough to use mobile data instead of the workplace/school’s network.
When dealing with censorship, though, you’ll definitely need a VPN. Proxies and Tor are good options too, but not as reliable.
Protect Your Privacy
If you want to stop websites from tracking you, learning how to change IP address on Android devices is a must. Otherwise, they can continue associating your IP address with your behavior to create customer and advertising profiles based on that info.
Similarly, advertisers can track it too. They do it to analyze your web browsing and online behavior to spam you with creepy personalized ads.
For this job, we can only recommend using a VPN. Besides masking your IP address, it also encrypts your traffic. That stops your ISP (and anyone else) from seeing your web browsing, so they can’t share that data with advertisers anymore.
Get Better Prices
Online merchants often display different prices based on your geo-location. They often do it for profit, but - sometimes - they also need to do it because they have to pay higher import taxes and shipping costs for some countries.
Since your IP address reveals your geo-location, you might be able to bypass online price discrimination by changing your IP address. Ideally, you should use an address from countries that have a lower cost of living.
VPNs and proxies are both great in this case. Tor works too but the slow speeds will eventually get annoying.
Know Other Ways How to Change IP Address on Android?
Go ahead and tell us about them in the comments. If they’re good enough, we might include them in the article.
Similarly, if you know other good reasons to hide your IP address on Android, please let us know.