Mullvad's new obfuscation combats one of the biggest drawbacks of using a VPN

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Mullvad's new feature aims to have minimal performance impact while beating censorship

Mullvad on a laptop
(Image credit: Future)

Mullvad, one of the most private VPNs on the market, has introduced a new feature designed to make VPN use harder to detect in restrictive environments. This also aims to combat the impact obfuscation usually has on your system: battery drain.

Called Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation (LWO), the protocol is now available on all Mullvad desktop clients and Android apps, with iOS support coming soon.

What does Lightweight WireGuard Obfuscation do?

The introduction of LWO makes it Mullvad's fourth WireGuard obfuscation method, and its second launched this year, following the introduction of QUIC obfuscation this September.

LWO makes it harder for firewalls and network filters to detect and block WireGuard VPN traffic. It works by scrambling the header of each WireGuard packet, making them less recognizable as VPN-related data. This allows users to bypass blocks that rely on deep packet inspection or traffic fingerprinting.

Many of the best VPNs include obfuscation tools, however LWO is designed to be lower-impact than most. Unlike heavier obfuscation tools, LWO is designed to be fast and efficient. Because it performs minimal computation, it places almost no strain on your system, delivering strong throughput and low power consumption, even on lower-end devices.

This makes it a practical solution for users in censored regions who still need performance and battery life.

VPN data

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

How to enable Mullvad's new obfuscation

To use LWO, you'll need at least version 2025.13 of Mullvad's desktop app or version 2025.9 on Android. The iOS version will include support in a future update.

By default, the Mullvad app will automatically attempt LWO if regular connection attempts fail. However, you can also manually enable it by going to: Settings > VPN Settings > WireGuard Settings > Obfuscation > LWO.

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Aleksandar Stevanović
Freelance Writer
With contributions from

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