Hello everyone, This is the report from the user support team for the month of July 2026. Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been the same from the previous month respectively. - Summary of updates from user support - General user support - Farsi-speaking user support - Russian-speaking user support - Frontdesk (email user support channel) - Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels - Highlights from the Tor Forum - Highlights from Google Play Store # Summary of updates from user support ## General user support * 358 tickets in total (↓1) * 245 tickets on Email * 106 tickets on Telegram * 7 tickets on Signal * Our WhatsApp support channel was unreachable for sometime at the end of July. The issue has been resolved now and the WhatsApp support channel is fully functional as of now. If you reached out to us via WhatsApp in the meantime, your tickets have been processed by the team. But in case you haven't received a message please do not hesitate to reach out again. Apologies for the inconvenience. * Added documentation to explain why Tor VPN will not work if the [Private DNS][] option is set on Android's Network and internet settings. * In light of the [tor 0.4.8 deprecation][] that is scheduled for September, we received a few queries about it. Whenever noticeable, we have been actively encouraging users to update their tor version. * Tails user support parity: the team has been looking at Tails user support parity issue. In this initial phase, the Tor user support team got access to Tails mailbox and learned their ticket triage workflow. We did a [short summary of their tickets]. * In July, dir auths dropped support for [Tor 0.4.6 and 0.4.7-before-0.4.7.120.4.6.x], we had a few users reaching out to us asking why their Tor didn't connect. * We have received a [report] that Orbot for Android is no longer available from the Google Play Store in India. [Private DNS]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/vpn/-/issues/147 [tor 0.4.8 deprecation]: https://blog.torproject.org/sunsetting-tor-048/ [short summary of their tickets]: https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/work_items/20773#note_288224 [Tor 0.4.6 and 0.4.7-before-0.4.7.120.4.6.x]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/network-health/team/-/work_items/460#note_... [report]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/orbot-for-android-is-no-longer-available-from... ## Farsi-speaking user support * 26 tickets in total (↓41) * 4 tickets on Email * 22 tickets on Telegram * We received several tickets from users in Iran reporting that Google's "My Location" feature showed their location as "Tehran" while using Tor Browser. After investigating, we found that this was caused by Google's geolocation service flagging some Tor exit nodes in Europe as being from Tehran. Our team was able to reproduce the same behavior using Tor Browser, confirming that the issue is not specific to Iranian users. Checking with other geolocation checking services, did not exhibit the same behavior and as expected reflected the location of the Tor exit. * Although the number of support tickets from Iran dropped in July, as per Tor Metrics, [Tor usage in Iran remains stable][]. Iran also remains one of the [top countries by bridge usage]. [Tor usage in Iran remains stable]: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-country.html?start=2026-05-0... [top countries by bridge usage]: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-bridge-table.html?start=2026-05-08&... ## Russian-speaking user support * 442 tickets in total (↓56) * 156 tickets on Email (↓35) * 283 tickets on Telegram (↓22) * 3 tickets on Signal (↑2) * Direct connections to Tor have been gradually blocked in [Belarus][] for a while, and now it is almost completely blocked. Users from Belarus need to use bridges to connect to Tor. [Belarus]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/censorship-analysis/-/work... # Frontdesk (email user support channel) * 479(↑) RT tickets created * 405(↓) RT tickets resolved Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 202(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 2. 156(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 3. 47(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 4. 15(↑) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 5. 11(↑) tickets: instructions to use WebTunnel bridges with Tor apps. 6. 5(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 7. 3(↑) tickets: reports of fake apps on iOS AppStore masquerading as official Tor Browser. 8. 1(↓) tickets: report of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser. 9. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to download and install Tor Browser. 10. 1(↑) ticket: query about the [privacy policy][] of Tor applications. [privacy policy]: https://www.torproject.org/about/privacy_policy/ # Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal user support channels * 421(↓) tickets resolved Breakdown: * 411(↓) tickets on Telegram * 10(↓) tickets on Signal * 0(↓) tickets on WhatsApp Tickets by topics and numbers: 1. 286(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries. 2. 35(↑) tickets: instructions to circumvent censorship for Chinese speaking users. 3. 22(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi. 4. 16(↓) tickets: help with using censorship circumvention methods on Onion Browser (iOS) or Orbot (Android / iOS). 5. 10(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting Tor VPN beta. 6. 8(↓) tickets: help with troubleshooting existing Tor Browser install on Desktop (Windows, macOS and Linux). 7. 7(↑) tickets: instructions to use GetTor. 8. 6(↑) tickets: query about Tor Browser support legacy operating systems. 9. 5(↓) tickets: instructions on how to get Tor Browser binaries from GetTor. 10. 4(↑) tickets: questions about onion services and how to access them. 11. 3(↑) tickets: questions about [Tor 0.4.8 end-of-life][]. 12. 3(↓) tickets: query about Tor Browser support legacy operating systems. 13. 2(↓) tickets: help with using bridges with Tails. 14. 2(↑) tickets: report of websites blocking Tor connections or not performing well in Tor Browser. 15. 2(↑) tickets: donation related query. 16. 1(↑) ticket: can't use Tor VPN when Private DNS is configured on Android's Network settings. 17. 1(↑) ticket: instructions to setup Snowflake proxy. 18. 1(↑) ticket: questions about Tor Browser's Security Levels and how to disable / enable JavaScript when using Tor Browser. [Tor 0.4.8 end-of-life]: https://blog.torproject.org/sunsetting-tor-048/ # Highlights from the Tor Forum * Update to [tor 0.4.9][] by September. [tor 0.4.9]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/consensus-not-signed-by-sufficient-number-of-... # Highlights from Google Play Store ## Tor Browser for Android * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) had a Google Play rating of 4.28 stars in July, which is higher as compared to in June. * Tor Browser for Android (TBA) got 629 (↑58) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 69,813. * For Tor Browser, the most common issue mentioned on reviews were the censorship against Tor in countries like Russia, China, Iran and Tor Browser being slow to browse. ## Tor Browser for Android Alpha * Tor Browser for Android Alpha app had a rating of 4.115 (↓0.004) in July which is lower compared to June. * Tor Browser for Android Alpha got 4 (↓2) new reviews. The total count of reviews for the app stands at 8,789. ## Tor VPN Beta * Tor VPN beta number of unique daily users is around 73,000 at the end of July. * The top 5 countries by the number of installations being (in descending order): Russia, India, Iran, the United States, and Turkmenistan. Thanks! -- ebanam