Use network relays on Apple devices

Network relays available on devices with iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14 or tvOS 17, or later, are a special type of proxy that can be used for remote access and privacy solutions. They support secure and transparent tunnelling of traffic and are a modern alternative to VPN when accessing internal resources. These relays are built into the network stack of the operating systems and don’t require any custom app code.

Network relays are built on the modern and standardised MASQUE protocols and can be used to proxy all TCP and UDP traffic. This allows a network relay connection to be established very efficiently and doesn’t require assigning another IP address to the device. Additionally, multiple relays can be used at the same time, including the ability to combine configured network relays with iCloud Private Relay.

Relay configurations can route traffic based on match domains and excluded domains. Match domains determine which connection should be routed through the relay. Any connection that matches the domain or a subdomain uses the relay servers, unless they’re listed as an excluded domain. A network relay can also be applied to an entire device by not defining any match domains. In this case, traffic to all domains, except those matching an excluded domain, is routed to the relay.

Additionally, Managed Apps can be assigned to a specific network relay configuration.

To seamlessly authenticate and establish the connection to the relay, the configuration can refer to an identity certificate provided by one of the available mechanisms described in Distribute certificates.