Nym Technologies has released a major update to the NymVPN iOS app that adds several new connectivity and convenience features.
At the heart of the update are new features designed to give users control over the balance between privacy and performance.
NymVPN is one of the more technical VPNs on the market. Central to its operation is the titular Nym mix network, or mixnet, which hides user metadata by routing traffic through a mixture of servers, scrambling IP addresses on both sides of the connection.
At the same time, a mix of other users’ traffic and decoy traffic is sent through the same mixnet, making it virtually impossible to trace any actions back to you.
NymVPN has seen several notable improvements recently, adding post-quantum encryption as standard in June this year, split tunneling for Windows users in April, and an ad-blocker earlier in 2026.
It now looks a little more like a typical VPN, although the new features and fixes included in the 2026.11.0 iOS update are a bit more complex than your typical VPN update. Read on for a rundown of the new features (based on the information NymVPN gave us anyway).
Key features
The update introduces Server Families, a new alert system that lets users know when their selected mixnet servers may belong to the same carrier or subnet. This allows users to maintain decentralization by choosing servers from different operators for each node in the mixnet.
All Nym servers are community-driven and decentralized using blockchain technology, but using different operators for each node maximizes the possible obfuscation of network traffic.
In addition, the update adds a new Mixnet Tuning feature in beta that allows users to adjust the balance between anonymity and privacy.
Mixnets operate through a series of ‘hops’ that refer to individual nodes between the origin and destination of the network traffic. Nym uses a five-hop mixnet by default, with an input, output and three connection points in between.
This creates latency – according to Nym, its mixnet adds 15ms of delay per hops by default, a total of 75ms over five hops.
This is a deliberate measure designed to conceal timing of your network traffic, as well as its origin and destination, but can be annoying for streaming video or playing online games where latency needs to be as low as possible to maximize performance.
Mixnet Tuning adds two settings that allow users to adjust NymVPN’s default instructions while maintaining the connection. These are the ‘Send traffic continuously’ setting, which offers a range of 0.7Mbps to 2Mbps for decoy traffic, and ‘Packet Mix Profile’, which changes how long each mix node holds on to your traffic, from 0ms to 200ms.
Keeps it comfortable
NymVPN’s latest iOS update also brings some quality-of-life improvements to the app, and while it’s still a fair way off our list of the best VPNs, it’s good to see that the app is now easier to use on top iPhones and top iPads.
These improvements include the ability to change the app icon to a calculator or notepad to avoid prying eyes, a bug fix for an issue that displayed subscription data incorrectly after a fresh install, and stronger ad blocking.
Nym’s blog says that the app’s daily data allowance has been increased, but at the time of writing the company has not confirmed the total allowance or how much it has been increased.
Similarly, Nym has not expanded on its claim that the update makes it easier to use NymVPN in areas and territories that restrict VPN use.
TechRadar has reached out to NymVPN for more information on these areas, and we’ll update this article when we know more.
