How To Setup & Use Private DNS On Your Android Phone

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Configuring DNS on Android was one of daunting tasks to do. If you want to set a DNS, you have to tweak DHCP setting for each and every Wi-Fi networks you use separately.

And to set DNS for cellular networks, you have to download a third-party app from playstore.

To solve these two major problems, Google has added Private DNS feature.

The Solution : Private DNS

Google introduced Private DNS in Android Pie v9, which lets you easily configure your DNS for your whole Android device. With Private DNS option, you can set a DNS server for all of your Wi-Fi and Mobile networks at one place rather than changing it one by one for each.

Not only it makes the process simple, but Private DNS also adds support for a new security feature called DNS over TLS.

But, what is DNS and DNS over TLS?

If you don’t know already, in order to view a website we have to know its IP address (Ex. 172.217.6.238 is the IP address of Google.com). As it is hard to remember them, computer scientists invented DNS system.

DNS is system which translates the Web address we enter (google.com) to its equivalent IP address (172.217.6.238 ), so that we don’t have to remember the IP address for each website we visit.

And DNS over TLS is a new security upgrade to DNS, which encrypts all the DNS queries you perform rather than transmitting it as plain text. Its like HTTPS for DNS. This makes your web browsing more secure as no can read your DNS queries. (Every time you visit a website it performs a DNS query).

How to configure DNS over TLS on Android for all the Wi-Fi & Mobile Networks

Before we proceed to setting up DNS, first get the host name of the DNS resolver you want to use. And make sure your device is running on Android Pie 9 or higher version.

And Private DNS on Android only supports DNS over TLS, so if the DNS resolver provider you want to use doesn’t support it, you cannot use it in Private DNS.

Here are some of the popular public DNS providers who support DNS over TLS that you can use:

  1. Google DNS – 8.8.8.8 (Hostname: dns.google)
  2. Cloudflare DNS – 1.1.1.1 (Hostname: 1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com)
  3. Quad9 DNS – 9.9.9.9 (Hostname: dns.quad9.net)

Follow these steps to setup Private DNS on Android:

  1. Open Settings and go to Network & Internet –  Advanced – Private DNS or just search for “Private DNS” in settings search bar.
  2. Tap on Private DNS and you will see a popup. 
3. Now select the “Private DNS provider hostname” option and enter the DNS provider hostname in the text field and tap on Save (We are using Google DNS here).

That’s all. You have successfully setup Private DNS on your phone

Bonus Tip: If your phone is running on older android versions (Android Oreo or lower) and doesn’t have Private DNS option, but you still want to use DNS over TLS, you can use 1.1.1.1 app by Cloudflare.

Concluding

DNS-over-TLS adds better security and privacy to your Internet browsing. So, I would recommend everyone to enable Private DNS and use  public DNS providers like Google DNS if your devices supports.

Thank You ~