Always-on VPN switch on programmatically android

Question

Can Always-on VPN switch be on programmatically?

I have added the device admin permission. After that i have set always on in with device admin

mDPM = (DevicePolicyManager) getSystemService(Context.DEVICE_POLICY_SERVICE);
    mDeviceAdminSample = new ComponentName(this, DeviceAdminReceiver.class);
    isAdminApp = mDPM.isAdminActive(mDeviceAdminSample);

    if (isAdminApp) {
        try {
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
                mDPM.setAlwaysOnVpnPackage(mDeviceAdminSample,"", true);
            }
        } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException namenotfoundexception) {
            namenotfoundexception.printStackTrace();
        } catch (Exception ex) {
        }
    }

but it's not enabling the always on.

i have added package name insted of

mDPM.setAlwaysOnVpnPackage(mDeviceAdminSample,"my.app.package.name", true);

but still not enabling the switch.

Then what this code is doing? How can i enable it programatically?

I want this to be like below image

Debbee

Any one have any relevant answer for this question? – Debbee

Answer 1

According to docs, setAlwaysOnVpnPackage can only be used by the profile owner (usually the MDM client on work profile) or device owner (for fully managed devices):

Called by a device or profile owner to configure an always-on VPN connection through a specific application for the current user. This connection is automatically granted and persisted after a reboot.

As a personal profile user - I don't want my VPN to decide for itself when to connect (set always on programmatically will immediately connect the VPN, if implemented correctly).

As a work profile user (wearing the hat of an employee), it's not my decision, but my organization's (via the profile owner app).

So, all in all, this behavior makes sense.

Update:

Instead implementing MDM, which could take a lot of work, you can clone, build and debug Google's Test DPC app, which have everything you need to test toggling always-on VPN programmatically.

It also have million other things, which you don't need so be sure to ignore the rest :)

I haven't looked at their code, but I suggest searching for usages of setAlwaysOnVpnPackage function.

Google's Test DPC app:

• Link to Play Store
• Link to GitHub repo (to build & debug it yourself)

Benedict

so should i make my app MDM client or something? – Debbee

Creating a fake MDM client it's a lot of work since you need to create a work profile and implement DPC app. I recommend using Google's official DPC demo app which does all that things and it's open source so you can checkout, build and debug their code with your app. I'm updating my answer with the details. – Benedict

Thanks a lot for your info. So there is no other way to always on vpn without creating a fake MDM client as i take your answer... – Debbee

I believe so. Sorry for the bad news. It's an API made for corporate VPNs – Benedict