A VPN on Samsung Galaxy: how to install it and set up the battery

People search “VPN for Samsung” about both phones and TVs. If you have a Samsung TV, you want another article: a VPN on a Samsung or LG TV. This one is about a Galaxy phone: how to install Mayak and what to set in One UI so the connection does not die in the background.

Phone or TV

Samsung makes both phones and TVs, and the search “VPN for Samsung” does not tell them apart. Samsung TVs run a different system, Tizen, and Mayak has no app for it. What is left (an Android box, or the TV as a screen) is laid out in a VPN on a Samsung or LG TV.

From here on it is only the Galaxy phone. One UI is Samsung's own shell on top of Android, and the settings we talk about live in it. The general guide for any Android phone is VPN for Android; for Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO there is a separate article.

How to install Mayak on Galaxy

1. Easiest: from Google Play. Open the store, find “Mayak Networks: Secure VPN” and tap Install. Updates then arrive through the store on their own.
2. Or from a file. In the phone's browser open mayak.ws/dl/app: Mayak's file downloads, about 18 MB. Open it from the notification shade or from the downloads folder, and allow installing from this source if the phone asks. Android may show a Play Protect window that says “Play Protect has never checked apps from this developer”: tap the grey line “Install anyway”; the big blue “OK” cancels the install (details in the help).
3. Create an account right in the app, or sign in with the one you made in the account page.
4. Tap Connect. Android shows one system window asking to set up the protected connection once: agree. “Protected” appears — done.

Why the store is easier than the file on Galaxy. Samsung has an Auto Blocker protection (Settings → Security and privacy → Auto Blocker). According to Samsung's help, it stops apps downloaded from outside Galaxy Store and Google Play from being installed, and on devices released with One UI 6.1.1 it is on by default (Samsung's help). The same page says an app installed from outside a store will not update while the protection is on. Samsung's advice is to switch it off temporarily if you are sure of the app. Download the file only from our site: a foreign file with the right name cannot be checked.

The Google Play and site versions do not install over each other: the signatures differ, and to switch from one to the other you have to remove the first (you sign in again; the paid period stays on the account). If the file will not download or will not install, go through it step by step in a separate article.

How to connect and how to switch off

You turn Mayak on with the Connect button: pick a country, tap, and the screen says “Protected”. The order for a phone and a computer is in how to connect a VPN. You turn it off with the same button; the fallback through the system settings, and what to do if the internet vanished after switching off, is in how to turn off a VPN on your phone. To have Mayak come up by itself when the phone starts, go to Settings → Protection → Auto-connect and connect by hand once.

One UI sleeping apps: keeping the connection alive

When the screen goes dark Android puts apps to sleep to save battery, and Samsung keeps its own lists of “sleeping” apps on top of that. For an app that holds a connection this means the connection can drop while the screen looks perfectly normal. In our connection checks for 7–31 August 2026, three Samsung models gave 127 checks, and in 116 of them the app's background work was restricted (table and analysis). These are checks, not people: few devices stand behind them, and it is not statistics, but the settings in question are on by default.

The paths below come from Samsung's help pages, opened on 29 September 2026. Samsung itself says that menu names and screens differ by model and software version, and its Russian pages call the section “device maintenance” while its English pages say “Battery and device care”. Go by meaning: the search box in Settings finds items by name.

1. “Unrestricted” for Mayak. Settings → Apps → Mayak → Battery → Unrestricted (Samsung's help, in Russian, updated 4 September 2025). Samsung warns this may shorten battery life. On the same page: Apps → Mayak → Mobile data — allow background data.
2. The sleep lists. Settings → Battery and device care → Battery → Background usage limits. There are three lists (Samsung's help): “Sleeping apps” may run in the background if you start using them again; “Deep sleeping apps” never run in the background and only work when you open them; “Never sleeping apps” are the ones that must never be put to sleep. Check that Mayak is not in the first two (to remove: three dots → Remove apps) and add it to the third: tap +, select it, tap Add. For an app whose job is to hold a connection, deep sleep, going by Samsung's description, amounts to a dropped connection.
3. Automatic sleep. The same page has the “Put unused apps to sleep” switch: it sends apps you have not used for a while to sleep on its own. A Mayak you open rarely may end up there. The “Never sleeping apps” list protects against this (Samsung's help); Samsung separately notes that background battery use may then go up.
4. Power saving mode. According to Samsung, when it is on, background apps are restricted from Wi-Fi and mobile data. If the connection drops only with the mode on, switch it off and check again. We have no measurement of this mode of our own.

What our app does. If it notices the system has cut its background work, “Check the connection” in Settings shows a “Remove the limit” button. It opens Android's system battery list, and if there is no such screen, the app's card. The sleep lists under “Background usage limits” the app does not open by itself: they are the maker's own, so you have to go there by hand.

A second layer: always-on. If the phone still unloads the app, turn on the system “Always-on VPN” mode: then the system itself holds the protection and brings it back after sleep. In Mayak: Settings → Protection → “No protection — no internet”; the button opens the right Android screen. The price: while the mode is on, a switched-off Mayak leaves the phone without internet; how to undo that is in the article about turning it off. Details are in the help; the general guide to disconnects is here.

What we tested

• Samsung's help pages, 29 September 2026: two in Russian (background apps, battery optimisation), one in Russian on Auto Blocker and three in English. The paths and names are copied from them, not taken from memory.
• Our connection checks for 7–31 August 2026: 127 checks from three Samsung models, background restricted in 116; the numbers are from the article about disconnects.
• What the “Remove the limit” button does. Read in the app's code on 29 September 2026: it opens the system battery list, with the app's card as a fallback; Samsung's sleep-list screens are not opened.
• Installing from the file and connecting on an Android emulator, 24 September 2026 (the Huawei article): the app installed, signed in and connected. That is not a Galaxy, and such a check does not show One UI windows.

What we do not know

• How Mayak behaves on a real Galaxy. We tested neither the install nor background work after these settings on Samsung phones.
• Whether Auto Blocker will stop our file specifically. Samsung writes about it in general terms; we have not tried our install and update with the protection on. If the file will not install, check this protection first.
• Whether the menu names match your One UI version. Samsung's pages describe Android 12–14 and caveat differences by model; on the newest firmware the items may be named differently.
• How much battery use grows with “Unrestricted” and “Never sleeping apps”. Samsung warns about it; we have no measurement of our own.
• Whether it will work for you. That depends on your network and can be checked only on your own phone; that is what the trial is for.

Short answers

How do I install a VPN on a Samsung phone? From Google Play (“Mayak Networks: Secure VPN”) or from the file at mayak.ws/dl/app; then an account and the Connect button. The steps.

Which VPN is best for Samsung? We do not name other apps or write rankings. By features: installs from a store, holds in the background, says plainly what was tested and what was not. The features are laid out in the Android article.

Is there a free VPN for Samsung? We have no free access forever. There is a trial that is free and needs no card.

How do I download a VPN for Samsung? From Google Play or from mayak.ws/dl/app; nowhere else: a foreign file with the right name cannot be checked.

Why does a VPN turn itself off on Samsung? Most often the phone puts the app to sleep in the background. Check the battery and the sleep lists.

And a VPN on a Samsung TV? We have no app for Tizen: what to do.