When you use the internet on your smartphone, websites you visit can track you using your IP address.
So you might occasionally want to change your phone’s IP address to get better privacy.
In this article, we discuss whether you can change your IP address by using the Airplane mode of your phone.
Here’s Whether Airplane Mode Can Change Your IP Address:
Activating the Airplane mode for a few minutes and then connecting to the cellular network again can change your IP address. Cellular carriers use DHCP servers to assign IP addresses to their customers. So disconnecting from the network using Airplane mode and reconnecting again can give you a different IP.
Can You Change Your Phone’s IP Address By Using The Airplane Mode?
You can change your phone’s IP address by activating the Airplane mode for a few minutes and then deactivating it again.
Cellular carriers use DHCP to give IP addresses to their customers. They have a pool of IP addresses, and they dynamically assign one of the addresses to your phone.
When you activate the Airplane mode, your phone disconnects from the mobile network. Then when you deactivate the Airplane mode, your phone request a new IP address from the mobile network to connect again.
Depending on your cellular carrier’s DHCP configuration, the new IP address you get can differ from the old one. So Airplane mode can change your IP address.
Why Doesn’t Airplane Mode Give You A New IP Address?
Airplane mode is not guaranteed to give you a new IP address every time. When you activate the Airplane mode and deactivate it again, your new IP can sometimes be the same old address.
Whether you will get a new IP address from the Airplane mode depends on your carrier’s DHCP configuration and lease time. If you only activate Airplane mode for a very short time (less than a minute), the carrier might not release your old IP address. In that case, you will get the same IP address when you connect again.
Sometimes, even if you activate the Airplane mode for a longer duration, you might still get the same IP address. Carriers only have a finite number of IP addresses. So there’s a chance that your phone gets the same old IP address after deactivating the Airplane mode.
Does Frequently Activating The Airplane Mode Damage Your Phone?
Frequently activating and deactivating the Airplane mode won’t damage your smartphone.
When you activate the Airplane mode, your phone simply cuts power to the cellular and Wi-Fi radios. Powering off cellular and Wi-Fi radios frequently won’t degrade your phone in any way.
On the contrary, Airplane mode can reduce your phone’s battery drain. It can even refresh your network connections and make your web browser and other apps more responsive.
VPN Vs. Airplane Mode: Which Is Better To Change Your IP?
Both VPNs and Airplane mode can change your phone’s IP address. But VPNs are much more reliable for hiding your IP than the Airplane mode.
As we’ve said before, Airplane mode can’t always give you a new IP address; you might get the same old IP if you only activate the Airplane mode for a very short time. on the other hand, VPNs can give you different IP addresses every time you connect to them. You can also manually change the IP address whenever you want.
Airplane mode can only give you one of the IP addresses of your cellular carrier. So you can’t get an IP address from a different geographic location using Airplane mode. On the other hand, a VPN can give you an IP address from a different part of the world, hiding your current geographic location.
You can also use a VPN to unlock services not available in your region. The VPN will give you an IP address from any region you want, and you will appear as a user from that region to internet services. Airplane mode can’t change your location like that.
VPNs can also hide your web traffic from your cellular carrier (ISP). VPNs encrypt your traffic, so carriers can’t track the websites you visit and can’t read your data. The Airplane mode can’t give you that kind of privacy; all your traffic is visible to your ISP.
What Are The Other Ways To Change Your Phone’s IP Address?
There are several different ways to change your phone’s IP address. We’ve already discussed two methods: Airplane mode and VPNs.
You can also simply restart your phone to change your IP address. When you restart the phone, it disconnects from the mobile network. Then when you reconnect to the network you may get a different IP address using DHCP. This works similarly to the Airplane mode.
You can also connect to a Wi-Fi network to change your phone’s IP address. When you switch from mobile data to Wi-Fi data, you will immediately get a different external IP address.
Conclusion
The Airplane mode can give you a different IP address. When you disconnect from the mobile network using Airplane mode and then reconnect again, the carrier might assign you a different IP address using DHCP.
However, Airplane mode can’t always give you a different IP address. You might sometimes get the same old IP when you connect again.
If you want to change your phone’s IP address more reliably, you can use a VPN. VPNs can hide your IP address and geographic location much better than Airplane mode.
