Google is one of the biggest tech firms on the planet thanks to its ubiquitous search engine, but it also makes Pixel smartphones and a host of apps and software that are used every day by millions of people. Despite its stature, the company has an annoying habit of killing software features or even entire apps at the drop of a hat – and that’s exactly what has happened again.

Google is scrapping the VPN – that’s ‘virtual private network’ – tool that it currently includes as a feature in its Google One software subscription packages. It’ll disappear from the service in the coming months.

The Google One subscription for Android and iPhone bundles cloud storage together with Google Photos features, dark web monitoring, and other perks depending how much you pay monthly or annually. The VPN is present in all plans in 22 countries including the UK, but Google confirmed to 9to5Google that the feature is being axed because “people simply weren’t using it”. The tech giant also said taking away the VPN will allow a “refocus” to “support more in-demand features with Google One”. The company didn’t say what these features were.

VPNs are a useful security feature. Turning one on protects your IP address, particularly useful if you are using unsecure public Wi-Fi and are worried about potential hackers accessing your device or data – a real possibility. A VPN gives a peace of mind about surfing safely wherever you are, including abroad.

In February Google confirmed it has 100 million Google One subscribers. Even though the VPN wasn’t available in all countries to all those people, it must have not been used much at all for Google to get rid of it. It has only been available since 2020, but now the only way to access Google’s VPN service after this one goes away is on Pixel 7 and later Pixel phones, where the VPN is built in and usable free of charge.

Google is no stranger to killing off software services, even popular ones. Google Podcasts, the standalone podcast app, has recently been consigned to the scrapheap, with podcasts shoved into YouTube Music as Google tries to wrestle you away from Spotify and other all-in-one audio subscription apps.

In fact, Google shuts down so many apps, features, and products that there is a website called Killed by Google dedicated to tracking everything that falls victim to the Google guillotine. It currently lists 295 items.