Why YouTube is slow in Russia
If you’ve just arrived and YouTube barely moves, the hotel Wi-Fi is probably not the problem. The slowdown happens on the way to you, on equipment installed at Russian internet providers. Videos take a long time to load, the picture drops to a blur on its own, and on bad days even the home page won’t open.
The throttling switches on when the provider spots YouTube in your traffic. Behind a VPN the provider sees only an encrypted stream that looks like ordinary HTTPS, with nothing in it to spot. VanyaVPN does this with VLESS + REALITY, XHTTP, Hysteria2 and Shadowsocks.
When it isn’t the throttling
A slow line at home. If other sites are slow too, a VPN won’t make your connection any wider. Look at your internet plan, or at the router two walls away.
YouTube being down. When YouTube is out for everyone, abroad included, no VPN will bring it back. All you can do is wait until the service recovers.
How to watch YouTube with VanyaVPN
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Install the app
VanyaVPN has apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, for iPhone and Android, and for Android TV. With an Apple ID from outside Russia, the iPhone one is a regular App Store download. Without a subscription, the Connect button opens the plans first.
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Pick a country abroad
Open Location and choose a country nearby, such as Germany or the Netherlands, so videos start sooner. If you’d rather not choose, tap the Fastest tile.
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Switch on For Russia
Open Tunnel and select For Russia. YouTube then goes through the VPN, while Russian banking apps and Gosuslugi, the government services portal, connect directly as if there were no VPN.
On a TV
VanyaVPN has a separate app for TVs and set-top boxes running Android TV 10 or newer, available from Google Play or the apps page. You won’t have to type an email with the remote. Eight digits will do. Your phone shows them under Account → Sign in on another device, and so does your account on the website. The TV won’t take a code from a guest account, so if your phone’s Account tab offers Link e-mail, tap that first. Each code is valid for 3 minutes, so have the remote ready before you start.
Samsung and LG TVs run Tizen and webOS, and there’s no app for those. The easy way around that is an Android TV box plugged into the same TV.
What people ask about YouTube
Won’t the VPN itself slow YouTube down?
The video’s path gets a little longer, which is why a nearby country is the better pick. If videos still load slowly, try the next country over. And if the connection keeps dropping, the Find working server button under Account → Settings is made for exactly that.
Can I leave the VPN on after watching?
Yes. In For Russia mode, banks and Gosuslugi already connect directly, so VanyaVPN stays out of the way of everything else.
Why is YouTube showing me another country’s trends?
YouTube works out where you are from your IP address, and with the VPN on it sees the server’s country, hence the foreign trends and ads. You can set your country by hand in your YouTube profile menu, and the interface language doesn’t depend on the VPN at all.
What if a video isn’t available in my country?
Whoever uploaded it can limit a video to certain countries, and YouTube checks by IP. Pick a country where the video is allowed, say the one you came from, and reload the page.
For computers there’s VPN for YouTube on PC. Discord, Telegram, Roblox and the rest are listed in Use cases.