Back when the Nexus 6 was launched, there were rumors of Google opening up their wireless carrier, and while Project Fi isn’t 100% that, it’s certainly their way of trying to rock the proverbial boat that is the United States’ wireless landscape. Operating as an MVNO using both Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks, Project Fi allows select Nexus devices to use as much data as they want, and essentially bakes in Google Voice for voice calls, included in your package. Since its launch, Project Fi has become available on the Nexus 6P as well as the Nexus 5X, and will no doubt work with the upcoming Pixel Phones that are all but confirmed for a launch on October 4th. With Project Fi, Google made a VPN standard, and offered the Wi-Fi Assistant app to give Project Fi users a little help connecting to hotspots and such, and now, it’s available to all Nexus users and has also been update to work more globally as well.
Over the Summer, the Wi-Fi Assistant start to roll out to any and all Nexus smartphones in certain regions that were running Android 5.1 or above, and it certainly has its benefit for those that aren’t on Project Fi. The biggest benefit is of course the VPN that it runs natively, allowing users to connect to a public hotspot in your favorite coffee shot without having to fear quite so much the data sniffing boogeyman. The Wi-Fi Assistant is now rolling out to 11 more countries across Europe, including: Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. On top of making sure your local coffee haunt is secure, the Wi-Fi Assistant will also secure your own save networks at your own place or friends’. There is a caveat to this VPN however, regardless of whether you’re on public hotspots or otherwise, and that’s that your phone needs to see that the network in question is of high-quality and speedy. Presumably, Google took this decision to make sure that they didn’t enable the VPN on everything and make the slower connections even slower.
This news comes from Reddit, where a verified Googler has been sharing the news. While many will have already seen the Wi-Fi Assistant appear on their device, some might be wondering just when it will appear. The answer to that, is of course, to wait. Making sure that your Google Play Services is all up-to-date as well as might help here, however.