a persistent notification is no longer required. A key icon in the status bar is the only indication you get that the VPN is enabled
You still get the key icon. Is the fuss that it now takes more screen taps to reach the on/off, rather than just using the persistent notification?
The fuss is that 3rd party apps need a persistent notification to stay alive. But, because Google owns pixels, it can skip that step and be less intrusive/visible, which others can not.
Unfortunately, that will mean your app can be killed on many smartphones from device makers like xiaomi, Oppo, and huawei, which have aggressive battery optimization. I had this issue on a redmi device where background apps would be killed unless a permanent notification was present.
The WireGuard and tailscale apps work great for me without a persistent notification.
I haven’t tried wireguard. But, I should give them a try and see how it goes in samsung.
Persistent notification was added in response to android 8+ background restrictions. You didn’t need it before.
Apps that need to be constantly alive do that to avoid being killed by the system on android devices that are not stock or pixel. Apps like tasker, accubattery, Internet speed meter, adguard all target the latest android version 12 or higher.
We are on android 14. You can not install apps targeting android 5 from the playstore today.
Because (from what I’ve read) battery optimization may still kill them, depending on the phone.
