A new important feature is being planed for next year

Dec 8, 2015 14:31 GMT  ·  By

Ubuntu developers are planning to implement a default VPN solution into Ubuntu Touch that will be later made available in the regular Ubuntu desktop.

One of the most asked for features for Ubuntu Touch is the ability to set up a VPN, and it looks like that will happen in 2016. This is a fairly straightforward request, and it's also something that should be made available sooner or later anyway. Canonical's goal is to have a single operating system base for both the desktop and the phone, and they are going to have feature parity.

For now, there is no way to set up a VPN on the Ubuntu Touch, but we also have to keep in mind that this is a Linux operating system. Sure, it works only on phones, for now, in a stable form, but the idea is that it's also coming to the desktop.

VPN won't be here with OTA-9, most likely

A new OTA update that could bring such a feature to the OS is planned for January, but it's likely that it won't be ready by then. The good news is that the feature is marked in Launchpad with a bug, and it has been acknowledged by the developers.

This is not the only feature request for Ubuntu Touch, but there is a long backlog of stuff that either needs to be fixed or to be added. VPN is not something usually found on mobile operating systems, so it's not high on the list for the Ubuntu developers.

With that in mind, if you want to make sure that a certain feature gets more attention from the developer, make a Launchpad account and let them know that you also want this feature.

In the meantime, Canonical is preparing a hotfix update for Ubuntu Touch dubbed OTA 8.5 that should be available next week if everything goes according to plan.