Confused by /e/ OS "DNS" setting VS stock Android "Private DNS"

One of the reasons for me to choose /e/ OS back in December 2019 was the possibility to easily change the Android default DNS to one of my choice. The feature is still there and advertised in the product description as follows:

DNS default servers are not Google anymore, and their settings can be enforced by the user to a specific server

Not many Android custom roms allowed this possibility at the time.

However, more recent versions of Android (or at least Lineage OS and related forks) do now allow to set a “Private DNS”.

So, now I am confused about the following:

  • Assuming the two settings actually carry out different functions (e.g. one applies to mobile data, the other to wi-fi networks) which DNS setting is used for what type of network connection;
  • Assuming both setting do carry out exactly the same function (i.e set DNS for both mobile netowrks and wi-fi), which one of the two settings prevails when both are configured.

“Classic” DNS settings allow you to choose your DNS server, but requests remain unencrypted.
Private DNS allow you to encrypt DNS requests, so they can’t be seen by your network provider.
Please read here : Encrypt your DNS queries on /e/OS system-wide

Thanks for the pointer, @smu44.

Since it was still unclear to me which one prevails when they are both set, I did try to set “classic” DNS to 1.1.1.1 (cloudfare) and “Private DNS” to dns.quad9.net (quad9).

https://dnsleaktest.com shows I am connecting via Quad9 (actually shown as WoodyNet as per this comment).

So, the Private DNS setting seems to prevail over the “classic” one.

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