Do you know – what is the key icon on android devices? If not, then don’t worry. Because there are many other android users that are on the same boat as you.
Now, if you want to know more about this key or padlock icon that you can see on the status bar of your android phone, you have come to the right place. Because we will be sharing all the necessary information about this notorious icon in this post.
So, without further ado, let’s get to it…
What Is The Key Icon On Android?
In short, the padlock or key icon on Android is an icon that indicates that you are using a VPN service on your phone at the moment.
Now, what is a VPN service? VPN or Virtual Private Network is a way of connecting to the internet securely over a public network. Let’s say, you are browsing this website from your android phone at the moment as you are reading this post.
Now, if you are not using a VPN service, your internet service provider i.e. the company or people you are using the internet from can see that you are browsing this website if they wanted to.
Also, if they want to, they can block you from accessing any particular website. Because they have control over your internet connection.
Now, if you want to counter the block, you can use a VPN service. Also, if you want to keep your internet browsing safe, secure, and private, then you can use a VPN service.
That way, the internet service provider will know that you are accessing a VPN service. But they will not know what sites you are visiting.
So, you can shield all the prying eyes on your browsing activity this way. These are only a couple of reasons behind the popularity of using a VPN service. Of course, like any other thing in life, using a VPN has both its pros and cons.
But we will not talk about all those today as those are not relevant to the topic. However, we can tell you this whenever you are using a VPN service on your Android phone, you will notice that padlock/key icon on the status bar.
How Do I Get Rid Of The Key/Padlock Icon On My Android Phone?
Now, there are a bunch of VPN services out there. The best and easiest way to use a VPN service on your android phone is to install a reliable VPN app from the Play Store. There are hundreds of such apps available on the Play Store. Most of them are free. However, some offer premium servers for a premium fee.
On the other hand, you can also set up your own VPN service by tweaking the VPN settings on your android phone. However, it is not that easy. So we would suggest the method we have discussed above for this.
Now, you might want to hide the key icon on your android phone. Or you might also want to get rid of the icon completely. In the following section, we will share 2 ways to hide the VPN service, or Key, or Padlock icon on Android.
However, we would also tell you this, if you are using any VPN service, you should not hide the icon. Because it will offer you an indication that the VPN is running in the background. Otherwise, it would be hard to know if the VPN is running or not. That way, you will not be able to turn it off when necessary.
Method #1 Turn Off the VPN
The simplest way to get rid of the key icon on android is to turn off the VPN service you are using. Because when you are not using a VPN service, there will be no icon. As it only appears when you are using one to make sure you know that your internet connection is secure.
Now, depending on the VPN app you are using, the process of stopping the VPN service will vary a bit. So, we will be sharing a basic way of turning off a VPN service, which will be identical for almost all the VPN apps. So, here we go…
Steps to Follow
- Launch the VPN app you are using right now
- Typically, you will find a big Start/Stop button on the homepage of the app
- Simply, tap on the Stop/Off button and it will stop the VPN service
That is it! You have turned off the VPN service. Now, if you look at the status bar, you will see that the key icon is not there anymore.
Now, what if you don’t know which VPN app is you are using? No worries, because we have another way of stopping or disconnecting a VPN service on Android. And it will not be an issue which app you are using, you can follow this trick to stop any VPN service on your android without any problem. So, let’s see how…
Steps to Follow
- Navigate to the ‘Settings’ menu of your android phone
- Now, depending on the model of your phone, you have to go to the ‘Wireless and Networks > VPN’ option. For some models, it might be Networks>More>VPN.
- Or else, search for ‘VPN’ on the search bar above the screen. And tap on the ‘VPN’ option from the search result. Whatever the case for you, your aim is to find the VPN settings on your android phone
- Now that you are on the VPN settings, you will find the name of the VPN apps installed on your phone
- Among them, you will find an app that will be in the ‘Connected’ state
- So, tap on the connected app. In doing so, a popup will appear saying whether you would want to disconnect the VPN service or not
- Simply, tap on the ‘Disconnect’ option and the VPN app will be disconnected
If you look at the status bar now, you will find that the key or padlock icon is not there anymore on the status bar.
Method #2 Use a 3rd Party App
You know that if you disconnect the VPN app you are using, the key icon will disappear. But what if you wanted to use the VPN service, yet you don’t want the icon to appear on the status bar? There is a way to accomplish that as well.
Now, it is hard to execute this process. So, we would not recommend it to our readers. But for the sake of sharing detailed information, we will talk about this method briefly. So let’s go…
Note: This process might not work on all devices similarly. Also trying to follow this method on some particular old devices might freeze or crash your phone. So, if you damage your phone in the process of following this method, we (Android Tipster) don’t take any responsibility. So please do it at your own risk.
Steps to Follow
- Download and install the System UI Tuner app on your android device from the Play Store
- Next, you will have to enable System UI Tuner using ADB on your android. To execute this, you will have to have a computer at your disposal
- After you have enabled the System UI Tuner app on your android phone, simply navigate to the ‘Settings’ menu on your phone
- Or simply, open the System UI Tuner app on your phone. Then go to the ‘Status Bar’ option
- And disable the ‘VPN Icon’ option by toggling it off
- Now, you can turn on any of the VPN apps on your phone and connect it to the internet. Hopefully, you will not see the VPN icon or the key icon, or the padlock icon anymore
So, you have learned how to disable the key icon on Android without turning off the VPN service in this process.
Concluding Thoughts
In this post above, we have told you that the key icon is related to VPN services running on an Android phone. Also, we have tried to talk about VPN a bit. In addition, we have also shared how to hide the key icon on your android phone in 2 ways.
In both cases, we have shared the methods in a step by step manner. So that our readers can follow along with ease. We hope this post was helpful to you.
As always, don’t forget to share the post with other fellow android users. And if you have any questions or suggestions regarding Android, don’t hesitate to share them in the comments section below!
