How to use Proxies with Android

When titans of the mobile tech industry chose to have Android as the operating system for their mobile devices, it comes as no surprise that it has become the most popular operating system for smartphones in the world with over 2.8 billion users scattered around the globe.

A big strength of Android’s operating system is it doesn’t encrypt internet traffic by default, so the data being transmitted from your device is viewable to any person who can capture it. This means that access to unencrypted traffic is available without hacking into your device or altering the way that you use it. So, it’s critical that you set up a proxy server to manage your mobile network’s inbound and outbound traffic for you, ensuring that all your data and information remain safe during transmission.

Android allows you to set up different proxy settings for individual wi-fi connections. This will work for all web browsers like google chrome but may not work for other apps since app developers decide whether to use android’s proxy settings or not. It’s pretty simple to set a proxy server up as detailed below.

This is a complete, step-by-step guide to proxies with your android device.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Go to your android phone’s wifi settings
2. Enter the connected network’s proxy settings
3. Choose an option you want to go with: automatically change proxy settings or manually enter them yourself
4. Input the necessary information for either option
5. Click “Save” if you’re done

Android’s Proxy Settings

Step 1. Go to your “Settings” app.

Step 2. Tap on "Connections". Other Android devices might have this as "Network and Internet" or simply "Wifi".

Step 3. Click on "Wi-Fi". Other Android devices might have this as "Internet".

Step 4. Click on the "Settings" icon beside the network you want to use a proxy on. For other Android devices without the icon, you just have to tap or long tap the network.

Note: Make sure to connect to the wifi first.

Step 5. Click on "View More". Other Android devices might have this as "Advanced Options" or an "Edit" button at the top right corner.

Step 6. Click on "Proxy".

Step 7. Click on "Manual" or "Auto-Config". For our purposes, we’ll be choosing "Manual".

You’ll now be redirected to your Android phone’s proxy settings. Now, you need to go to your proxy provider and acquire the proxy server details. You can jump straight to Step 14 if you already have your proxy server details. For example purposes, we’ll be using Geonode. It’s recommended to use your desktop or laptop for this part.

Step 8. Go to Geonode and log in with your existing account or sign up to create a new one.

Step 9. On the Home Page, click on “Residential Services”.

Step 10. Scroll down until you see “Endpoints”.

Step 11. Make sure that the selected Protocol is “HTTP” as SOCKS5 doesn’t work with Android mobile phones.

Step 12. Select which Session Type you want to utilize: “Rotating Proxy” or “Sticky Proxy”.

Step 13. Choose which proxy you want to utilize. For example purposes, we’ll be using the highlighted proxy “premium-residential.geonode.com:9001”.

If you want to use an IP address instead of a DNS, simply turn off the Show DNS button, and IP addresses will show up.

Now that you acquired your proxy server details, go back to your phone’s proxy settings.

Step 14. Enter your proxy’s “Hostname” or “IP address”. This is the first part before the semicolon, which in our example is “premium-residential.geonode.com”.

Step 15. Enter your proxy’s “Port number”. This is the second part before the semicolon, which in our example is “9001”.

Step 16. Enter any websites or domains you don’t want to use a proxy on.

Step 17. Click on “Save”.

Step 18. Turn the Wi-Fi off and on again. Open a mobile browser, visit any website and a notification will appear asking for your proxy account’s authentication details. Input your proxy account’s credentials here.

To get your authentication details on Geonode, simply go to your account’s home page and copy and paste your API Credentials.

Congratulations! You have successfully set up a proxy server for your Android Device.