Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 Android app lets you enable fast DNS: Here’s how you can use it

Cloudflare DNS service puts enhanced focus on security and privacy, and is claimed to be faster than the competition.

You may not be aware of Cloudflare, but the California-based company is one of the biggest providers of Internet-based services, including everything from content delivery and DDoS mitigation, to Internet security and DNS. By its own admission, Cloudflare serves more traffic than Twitter, Amazon, Apple, Instagram, Bing, and Wikipedia combined.

While Cloudflare’s services aren’t exactly visible to end users directly, earlier this year, the company launched its 1.1.1.1 DNS (Domain Name Server) service for the public. As noted by an XDA Developers report, Cloudflare’s DNS resolver puts enhanced focus on data privacy and network speed. It doesn’t log the user’s IP address, and is claimed to be faster than other DNS solutions as well.

To enable easy usage of its DNS service on Android smartphones, Cloudflare has launched its 1.1.1.1 app. The app is quite lightweight and doesn’t require the smartphone to be rooted either. All you have to do is launch the app, hit the toggle button to ‘On’, and 1.1.1.1 will take care of the rest.

It’s worth noting that the above method applies to smartphones running Android Oreo or lower. In case your smartphone is already on the latest Android Pie, you don’t even need the app. In that case, follow the steps mentioned below:

1.Navigate to Settings > Network & Internet

2.Select “Private DNS mode”.

3.For the Private DNS provider hostname, enter: “1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com” (without quotes). Once done, tap Save.

Among other things, Cloudflare’s DNS resolver service can also be used to access restricted/blocked websites.