PIA Rereleases Split Tunneling for macOS

Posted on Feb 22, 2024 by Himmat Bains

While VPNs are an amazing tool for enhancing online privacy and security, usability and convenience are paramount to ensure your daily browsing is not interrupted. It’s important to us that you get a seamless experience with Private Internet Access.

Split tunneling is one feature that allows you to customize your connection, and decide which apps and IPs should redirect traffic through an encrypted tunnel and which should access the internet through your ISP.

Since Apple updated their networking frameworks and libraries in November 2020, the split-tunneling function on macOS has been severely impacted for all VPNs. But the PIA team has worked hard to adapt to these challenges. With over 20,000 of you asking for a fix, we were committed to making it a reality. Now, we’re proud to announce we’re the first major VPN provider to offer split tunneling on macOS 11 and above! With the beta version, you can test it out for yourself. The feature will be available starting March 7 to all our customers as part of the full release.

We value configurability as an integral part of our service, but we don’t believe in setting barriers. That’s why we’re making our split-tunneling solution open-source and available for everyone.

Here’s what this means for you.

PIA Releases Split Tunneling for macOS

If you use PIA on a Mac and are on our Beta program, you can now head on to the Settings menu and check out the Split Tunneling menu. If you need to exclude apps, IPs, or raw binaries from the VPN tunnel, you’re free to do so with PIA for macOS 11.0 and up. 

If you’ve previously used split tunneling with PIA on Windows or Linux, the interface will feel very familiar. This release makes PIA the only VPN provider that offers a fully functional split-tunneling solution across all major desktop operating systems. No matter what devices you use, you’re guaranteed to customize your VPN connection to suit your needs.

What Happened on macOS Big Sur?

It all started with an OS update released in November 2020. Starting with Big Sur, the Network Kernel Extension APIs were deprecated. This caused issues with the split-tunneling feature. It’s why most VPN providers don’t offer split tunneling on macOS at all.

Best case scenario, if the feature is available, it’s only limited to users on macOS 10 and older. These operating systems are at least 4.5 years old, so most people are no longer using them.

However, we have developed an innovative solution by leveraging Apple’s network extension application program interfaces (API) and using high-performance network libraries, like SwiftNIO. 

PIA is one of the few VPN providers that offers 100% open-source apps as part of our commitment to transparency. Of course, our split-tunneling solution will also be open-source upon full release.  For those interested to see under the hood, make sure to check out our Github page once the feature is out of beta. We also hope those in the wider cybersecurity and digital privacy community will check our source code and find it useful.

Join Our macOS Beta Program

Want to test our split-tunneling feature before the live release? Join our desktop beta program. Here’s how.

  1. Open the PIA macOS app.
  2. Click on the 3 dots in the upper right side.
  3. Click on Settings and select Help.
  4. Tick the box next to Receive Beta Updates.
  5. Read the beta agreement, and click Agree to proceed.
  6. You’ll see a notice about a beta release in the app dashboard. Click Download and run the installation.

You will see the Split tunnel option under Settings.

Tailor Your VPN Experience with PIA

Here at Private Internet Access, we firmly believe you should have control over your online data. This means tailoring your connection to suit your needs, and split tunneling is essential for customization. Having this feature available across all major platforms is a big step in ensuring you make the most out of your VPN connection.

Your digital privacy should be in your hands, and we’re committed to providing you the flexibility you need to make sure that’s a reality. Thank you for choosing PIA as your trusted VPN provider. 

We’re delighted to fulfill your requests for new features! Please keep them coming by contacting our Customer Support team, and we’ll try our best to make them happen. 

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