Preventing Bypass on Android

Enforce a Content Policy on Android.

Tech Lockdown Team

Updated December 4, 2024

Android devices bring a high degree of customization and configurability, giving you a few methods that can help you prevent your Content Policy from being bypassed.

Enforce the Cloudflare One VPN

This is a summary of how you could enforce the content filtering VPN connection which is enabled by the Cloudflare One app.

A) Standard

We recommend enabling managed mode for more reliable enforcement.

If you can't enable managed mode:

Use an App Hider or app launcher downloaded from the Play Store to hide the Cloudflare One app.

Use an App Locker downloaded from the Play Store to restrict access to the Cloudflare One app (or to the App Hider).

Use an App Blocker downloaded from the Play Store to block Android settings.

B) Managed

Specify the option to Prevent Uninstalling Apps or protect the Cloudflare One app specifically.

Lock the device's VPN configuration to Cloudflare One.

Restricting Access to the Cloudflare One App

If you want to prevent a user from opening the Cloudflare One app and making changes, there are a few options.

Use an App Launcher and hide the Cloudflare One app from the list.

Use an App Locker to prevent the app from being opened, while still allowing it to exist on the device

Samsung Devices

Samsung devices have an additional option using Samsung Modes and Routines to automatically close the app if it's opened. It's useful to add a timer to this to ensure the app can reconnect if it was disconnected for some reason.

Here is an example mode that automatically closes the Cloudflare One app after 10 seconds:

Handling Unintentional Disconnect of the Cloudflare VPN

In some cases, the Cloudflare VPN may get disconnected. This could happen for various reasons, like if the app encounters an error. To mitigate this, you can try the following:

Samsung

You can use Samsung Modes & Routines to open the Cloudflare One app automatically every 60 minutes. This will trigger the VPN to automatically reconnect if it was disconnected for some reason.