Google One adds a VPN service to higher subscription tiers

Google has a ton of apps and services, some of them not free, many of them relatively unknown. One recent service that checks those two boxes is Google One, which has practically replaced its old Google Drive and Photos paid subscriptions. Separating its cloud storage offering into a product of its own gives Google the freedom to expand the service beyond just cloud storage. Case in point is the new VPN by Google One that offers privacy and security to those on the service's highest tiers.

VPNs or Virtual Private Networks are one of the most common and most popular ways to protect one's online activity, to the point that even governments both like it and dread it at the same time. In the past, setting up a VPN was something only a seasoned computer user was able to pull off, discouraging regular people from taking advantage of the technology. With a good number of new services and app these days, sometimes all it takes is a single tap.

Of course, not all VPN services are created equal, and while these effectively try to mask your comings and goings online, they do require you to trust the service provider that they won't themselves take a peek at your Internet activity. If you're using Google One to store your data and photos anyway, you probably already give Google the benefit of the doubt.

That is why Google One now offers an easy to use VPN service that, as mentioned, simply takes one tap to turn on and off. While that will immediately benefit file and photo transfers between your Android phone and Google's cloud storage, the protection applies to any and all Internet activity from your phone, no matter what app or browser you're using.

The catch is that this feature isn't available to all Google One customers. You need to be on the 2 TB tier, which costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, or higher. Along with the VPN service, those on that tier will also get Pro Sessions assistance for the new feature.