diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 4befc71e9..051477b72 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # testthat (development version)
 
+* `skip_if_offline()` now uses `captive.apple.com` by default. This is the 
+  host that Apple devices use to check that they're online so should be 
+  a higher reliability host than `r-project.org` (@jdblischak, #1890).
+
 * `test_file(desc = )` will now find `describe()` tests as well as `testthat()`
   tests (#1903).
 
diff --git a/R/skip.R b/R/skip.R
index f602ca925..d0a1c7d97 100644
--- a/R/skip.R
+++ b/R/skip.R
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ package_version <- function(x) {
 
 #' @export
 #' @rdname skip
-skip_if_offline <- function(host = "r-project.org") {
+skip_if_offline <- function(host = "captive.apple.com") {
   skip_on_cran()
   check_installed("curl")
 
diff --git a/man/skip.Rd b/man/skip.Rd
index 516e09b93..fa1bf7c76 100644
--- a/man/skip.Rd
+++ b/man/skip.Rd
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ skip_if(condition, message = NULL)
 
 skip_if_not_installed(pkg, minimum_version = NULL)
 
-skip_if_offline(host = "r-project.org")
+skip_if_offline(host = "captive.apple.com")
 
 skip_on_cran()