IOS "Connect On Demand" System setting serves as iOS VPN Internet Killswitch

OpenVPN

1. Under “General” -> “VPN” you will now see the added VPN connection. You can connect manually by flicking the button on the top. To configure On-Demand VPN, tap on the circled “i” next to the connection.
2. Now switch on On-Demand VPN by flicking the switch.
3. On-Demand VPN should now be activated. Whenever an application accesses the internet, the VPN connection will be automatically established. In the status bar you should see a “VPN” symbol now.

Effectively this is an Always-On VPN: Once configured, On-Demand VPN will ensure that a VPN connection is established first before any application communicates with the internet.

When using the official PIA IOS Application "Connect On Demand" should enable itself by default when the "automatically reconnect" setting is enabled from within the IOS PIA Application.

I always double check to make sure Connect On Demand is enabled.

tomeworm

This is how I have the PIA IOS app configured anyway. But I hadn't really considered this would function as a quasi-kill switch. How did you verify that it is indeed functioning as a kill switch?

OpenVPN

tomeworm said:

This is how I have the PIA IOS app configured anyway. But I hadn't really considered this would function as a quasi-kill switch. How did you verify that it is indeed functioning as a kill switch?

It's a funny story actually, I noticed that when the VPN connection dropped all Internet activity would stop working until another VPN connection was established. To confirm my suspicions I connected to the Switzerland gateway which is currently not functioning on IOS for some strange reason and while the application was attempting to connect to the gateway I tried to browse the Internet and was unsuccessful. When the VPN connection drops, the Wi-Fi icon disappears and no traffic will route.

JustAThought

According to @PIAColleen 's comment here:

5) Is the auto reconnect feature the IOS version of the Killswitch? It's similar, but no. The auto reconnect feature can't terminate your internet connection if the VPN disconnects — it can only attempt to reconnect as quickly as possible. 

OpenVPN

JustAThought said:

According to @PIAColleen 's comment here:

5) Is the auto reconnect feature the IOS version of the Killswitch? It's similar, but no. The auto reconnect feature can't terminate your internet connection if the VPN disconnects — it can only attempt to reconnect as quickly as possible. 

Yes the auto reconnect feature (within PIA Application settings menu) ensures the VPN will reestablish a connection as fast as possible. However, the "Connect on-demand" feature (within the IOS System settings) serves as an Internet killswitch.