Several major VPN providers have highlighted a bug affecting all Android 16 devices, including One UI 8 Samsung Galaxy devices, that remains unpatched by Google.

This bug breaks VPN apps without any indication, so users who rely on these apps to anonymize themselves on the internet leave themselves exposed, even without knowing that they have exposure.

As explained by several major VPN providers including Proton VPN, Mullvad, WireGuard, and others, this bug is related to Android 16's network stack. It can trip up when a VPN app is updated, and then render that app useless in the background without any indication to the user.

What this basically means is that the system ends up in a state where the VPN app can no longer reach the internet. With the app prevented from reaching the internet, it ends up in a rather confusing scenario for users, where they can't connect using the VPN and can't access the internet as their device is stuck in a connecting or fail to connect state.

The bug appears to trigger when the VPN app is updated while it's still active. Some of these providers highlighted the bug to Google as far back as September last year. Some claim the bug was reported even earlier and yet there hasn't been a fix. The only fix that seems to work right now is a reboot of the device or reinstalling the app entirely.

There isn't any response from Google just yet so it would be best for VPN users on Android 16 devices to be mindful of how they're updating the VPN apps.