A year after Cloudflare launched its 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver service and a few months after they introduced the mobile app version of the service, they are now introducing a new service under it called Wrap. They’re calling it a free VPN for those who don’t know what VPN actually stands for but would want to have faster but more secure Internet when outside their usual WiFi area. While it is indeed free, it actually uses a freemium model so that if you want it to be even faster and even more secure, you’ll have to pay.
Cloudflare is actually using the WireGuard VPN protocol which makes this VPN more optimized for mobile. It also prevents your device’s battery from draining too quickly as most VPN services cause your phone to lose too much juice. Warp should also be able to reduce your data usage because it caches and compresses your content whenever it can. But at its most basic, it should be able to make your connection quicker as it reroutes your traffic and whenever possible it encrypts your traffic to make your connection more secure and private.
VPN services are often used by people to trick websites into thinking you’re from another location (oftentimes for viewing content that is region restricted). But Warp will not do that and is more into increasing the speed of your connection and making it more private, especially in public spaces where it’s more prone to be accessed by those trying to trick you or even hack you. Cloudflare promises that it will not use any user-identifiable data to its disk and they will also not serve you ads, which can sometimes be the cause of security breaches.
How they’ll make money out of this service is through a freemium model. If you want to increase your speed and security, you can subscribe to their Warp+ service which will use their virtual private backbone as well as the Argo technology. However they did not indicate how much this “low monthly fee” will be for now but they did say it will vary per region.
If you want to stick to the free service, it will be an option within the 1.1.1.1 mobile app. But it’s not yet available as they admit they’re still not yet ready for a full, public launch. To secure your place in the waiting list, all you have to do is update the app to the latest version or if you haven’t downloaded it yet, do it now. Once you sign up, you’ll receive the notification when it’s finally available for you, early birds.
SOURCE: Cloudflare
