Nym Technologies has released a major update to the NymVPN iOS app, adding several new connectivity and convenience features.

At the core 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 blend of other users’ traffic and decoy traffic is sent through the same mixnet, making it effectively impossible to trace any actions back to you.

NymVPN has seen several notable improvements of late, 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 resembles a typical VPN a little more closely, though 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 breakdown of the new features (based on the information NymVPN has given us, anyway).

Key features

The update introduces Server Families, a new alert system that lets users know when their chosen mixnet servers may belong to the same operator 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-run and decentralized using blockchain technology, but using different operators for each node maximises the possible obfuscation of network traffic.

Additionally, the update adds a new Mixnet Tuning feature in beta, allowing users to adjust the balance between anonymity and privacy.

Mixnets operate through a number of ‘hops’, referring to individual nodes between the origin and destination of network traffic. Nym uses a five-hop mixnet as standard, with an entry, exit, and three connection points in between.

This creates latency – according to Nym, its mixnet adds 15ms of delay per hop by default, totalling 75ms across five hops.

This is an intentional measure designed to hide the timing of your network traffic, as well as its origin and destination, but could be annoying for streaming video or playing online games, where latency should be as low as possible to maximise performance.

Mixnet Tuning adds two settings that allow users to adjust the NymVPN’s default instructions while maintaining connection. These are the ‘Send traffic continuously’ setting, which offers a range of 0.7Mbps to 2Mbps for decoy traffic, and ‘Packet mixing profile’, which changes how long each mix node holds onto your traffic, from 0ms to 200ms.

Keeping it convenient

NymVPN’s latest iOS update also brings some quality-of-life improvements to the app, and while it’s still a fair way from our list of the best VPNs, it’s good to see that the app will now be easier to use on the best iPhones and best 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 hasn’t confirmed the total allowance or by how much it’s been increased.

Similarly, Nym has not expanded on its claim that the update makes it NymVPN easier to use 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 once we know more.

We always caveat our VPN speed tests by saying something like "but you only need around a 30 Mbps connection to stream 4K video". The trouble is that it's not always as simple as that when you're watching a UHD stream – particularly for an event as popular as the FIFA World Cup 2026.

The best VPNs offer ultra-fast network speeds that can handle ultra-high definition 4K video streaming – but network traffic spikes can bring this to a standstill.

Events like the World Cup cause traffic surging with some popular ISPs, VPNs, and the streaming services themselves struggling under the capacity stresses of having so many users demanding bandwidth at once. The results are often buffering or a reduction in video resolution at the least. Hence why your 4K football match might look a lot rougher than it should.

Server congestion can also cause packet loss, where packets of data sent through a network are unable to reach their destination, resulting in dropped frames or stuttering.

The solution is a two-parter. Firstly, you want to find a VPN with support for high-speed WireGuard connections that can remain stable under pressure from congestion. Secondly, switch your stream to 1080p, rather than 4K, in order to reduce the bandwidth you require. This should keep frame rates high and buffering to a minimum.

If you’re looking for a new VPN to keep up with the World Cup or watch other major events in 4K, our Norton VPN review found a solid choice with average Wireguard speeds of 1010mbps. What’s more, Norton VPN is currently available for up to 60 per cent off:

If you’re just not willing to step down to 1080p, you might want to look into using a Smart DNS service instead of a VPN. This will allow you to spoof your location on a less crowded server (i.e your home network), but won’t encrypt your data or hide your IP address.

And if Norton VPN just doesn’t float your boat, there are other options on the market. Norton is still slower than many of the best VPNs: ExpressVPN (1177mbps), NordVPN (1249mbps), and Proton VPN (1475mbps) all boast faster speeds. And for those on a budget, Surfshark still reigns as our pick for the best cheap VPN.

Whether rain or shine, weekday or weekend, my morning starts with a scroll.

It’s one of my most enduring habits. I’ll start by checking the time, before allowing myself a few texts or emails in the name of ‘productivity’, and before long, I’m lying there watching people throwing bowling balls at TVs or reading ragebait in the comments section.

I’ve long suspected that this isn’t the optimal way to start the day, but it was only after a recent moment of mid-scroll lucidity that I began to wonder why I reach for my phone first thing in the morning.

As it happens, research on early-morning phone habits suggests that it’s not just me diving into social media as soon as the alarm goes off.

The Independent reports that 81% of Brits reach for their phone as soon as they wake up, while a 2025 YouGov report found that the majority of US adults under 30 often use their phone right before sleeping and right after waking up.

These figures could suggest that most of us shared a mental tendency to pick up the phone right after waking up, but without additional context, they can’t tell the whole story.

So, to find out more about why I and so many others scroll first thing in the morning, I spoke to two psychology experts to connect the dots between ancient human behaviour and the supercomputers we keep in our pockets, and indeed our beds.

Information vs stimulation

“To boil it down as simply as possible, it’s a combination of our natural dopamine reward system and the fact that we are communal people,” says psychotherapist and addiction specialist John Puls.

Puls tells me that long-standing psychological drivers are pushing us to use our devices in the mornings, where in the past we might’ve sought different kinds of connection

“We are pleasure-seeking people, and one of the ways we do that is through engagement with our smartphones, particularly social media,” he explains, “and we want to know what’s going on in the world.”

Puls continues: “Previously, in closer communities with less technology, it wouldn’t be uncommon to just spend some time with your neighbours or your family in the morning. In the absence of that, people are looking for immediate connection, and the easiest way to do that is through the smartphone. You have to take into account the changes that have come with the smartphone, but these are natural impulses that social media is fulfilling.”

For clinical psychologist Dr. Ari Lakritz, the smartphone and all the news it connects us to fulfil an evolutionary impulse to detect threats: “The brain is somewhat hardwired to look for pertinent information, especially the more threatening information. The part of the brain that deals with that is called the amygdala — it’s one of the most ancient parts of the brain, one that’s most responsible for the fear response.”

“News sites, with their slant towards negative news, are hacking into an inborn part of ourselves,” he adds, “and when you’re looking at your phone as the first thing you’re doing, it may not be all that different from one of our ancestors scanning the horizon for threats.”

“We develop very early on to be aware of possible threats to ourselves, and to scan the environment for those [threats],” Lakritz continues, adding that the availability of information that may not be relevant to phone and social platform users could be increasing stress levels: “The existence of something we feel is negative or threatening in a far off country has no direct relevance to us, but we do find ourselves psychologically pulled to that.”

“It’s really assaulting people with a great deal of information that is not directly relevant to them, and definitely doing more harm than good… there’s this whole other aspect of life, which is positive news and uplifting stories that people are either not drawn to or simply not sent as much.”

Social media algorithms are blackboxed — meaning users aren’t privy to the decisions and equations that decide the content they see. With that said, it’s generally accepted that algorithms are designed to maximize engagement of any kind, and, as The Conversation reports, anger spreads more quickly through social media networks than other emotions.

As John Puls notes, this has a physical effect as well as an emotional one: “When you immediately go into your smartphone [in the morning] and start doomscrolling, so to speak, you’re releasing cortisol, a stress hormone, and your brain is getting overstimulated.”

“We’re basically in the middle of a giant experiment,” Puls continues, “our brains were not necessarily meant to be this stimulated first thing in the morning and then consistently throughout the day. Where it becomes problematic is with the risk of overstimulation — there’s a risk of constant pleasure-seeking that dulls the senses.”

Effects of the morning scroll

According to Dr. Ari Lakritz, beginning the day with an intake of highly charged, negative information can have major effects on one’s mood and focus. He describes social media as “unlimited scrolling” of “dramatic news that can get our fight or flight response very worked up.”

“It’s really not good,” he explains, “and it very much sets the tone of one’s cognitive framing. It’s very fast, intense stimulation, whether that’s YouTube Shorts, TikTok style videos, or even just Reddit-style scrolling through very short, snappy comments or news stories.”

Lakritz continues: “If my baseline is very fast, short, intense bursts of entertainment, when confronted with something that takes more focus or deeper thinking it’ll be hard to move on from that set point.”

When asked whether early morning phone use is always problematic, Dr. Lakritz makes few exceptions: “Aside from more extreme circumstances, it’s hard to think of a good advantage one is getting with the phone right there that couldn’t be gotten in a non-technological way.”

John Puls tells me that he’s noticed that several of his clients experience discomfort when away from their phones for even short periods of time: “It almost becomes an emotional support phone — if anything happens in our life, an interpersonal problem, a problem with our relationship, we could experience that discomfort until we scroll on Instagram.”

And for young people, even higher stakes could influence phone use from dawn till dusk.

‘If they don’t exist online, they don’t exist socially’

It’s worth noting at this point that I interviewed John Puls and Dr. Ari Lakritz separately, and without either knowing of the other’s involvement in this article. With that said, both professionals agreed that early morning phone use has a tighter hold — and greater impact — on young people.

“The teens that I’m working with that struggle with this, I have them check their screen time, and on average it’s between 14 and 15 hours,” says Puls, “that’s the majority of time that they’re awake.”

“Naturally, what comes with that is being pretty disconnected from people in real life [...] so there’s this pressure to constantly be online. Teens want to psychologically individuate from their families and feel part of a community, particularly with their friends. So they often feel the pressure that they can’t be part of that unless they’re on their phones.”

“For younger people, they feel that if they don’t exist online, they don’t exist socially.”

Dr. Ari Lakritz says that phone use in general has a huge impact on young people’s psychological growth: “It touches child development in a profound way. It’s a huge compound for something like ADHD, and makes assessment of ADHD very complicated — you have to piece apart how much of this is inattention issues, or developmental, and how much is very, very high exposure to electronic entertainment.”

Taking back time

Olivia Yokubonis, known online as Olivia Unplugged, is a digital wellness strategist for Opal, one of the best-known screen time limiter apps. She tells me that she “meets people where they are” with a message of digital balance and wellbeing, sharing tips and tricks to a combined social media audience of 600,000 followers.

"I was an Opal user before I even started working here,” Yokubonis explains, “the goal is to help people stop feeling like they’re the victim of their phones, and actually feel like they’re in control again.”

“I’m not anti-technology, I’m pro agency,” she adds, “you have to focus on awareness. I’m a big advocate of the idea that we can’t change what we don’t notice. And the morning scroll is very often unconscious.”

At the time of writing, Opal boasts more than a million daily users, and in 2026 announced that the app had saved its user base a total of 500 million hours — but Yokubonis’ strategies go further than just using the app: “Something I’ve implemented with my family is no-phone zones. The bedroom is one of those places — we put our phones in the other room, our alarms go off, and we have to get up and go get it.”

She adds: “Digital wellness means your attention is not constantly being fragmented, that you can think in complete thoughts and sentences, and that you don’t lose hours of your day, especially the first few hours of the day, without realising it [...] We need the ability to choose to go on a social media app rather than have it be a habit, or something that’s just automatically happening because my nervous system is reaching for something.”

“We have a finite amount of willpower, and these apps have an unlimited amount of resources. They are designed to use up that willpower.”

On a similar note, Dr Ari Lakritz explains that even a marginal reduction in screen time can make a big difference: “Check your screen time, add up how much you do per week, and try to cut it down by 10%. If it’s 60 hours a week, just cut off six, see what you can do. You don’t have to be a digital hermit to improve.”

Though high screen time correlates to higher revenues for many phone makers and mobile software developers, a rising tide of social media legislation and backlash against big tech could push some brands to recognise its problematic potential.

Indeed, some smartphone manufacturers are beginning to acknowledge the issue of excessive phone use, and are developing software-based features to help users curb their screen time.

Nothing, for instance, believes its Glyph Matrix and Essential Space features will ‘help you be more human’, while Google's upcoming Pause Point tool will redirect you away from social media apps towards more meaningful forms of smartphone engagement. Apple, too, recently announced a slew of wellbeing-focused upgrades for its Screen Time feature in iOS 27.